Remember
by Tanya Takaishi
Summary: Their relationship was like walking on cloud nine over a minefield. It was never meant to last. One thing no one ever really tells you about divorce is that everyone's got an opinion. Especially when you're one of the digidestined. Davis and Yolei deal with the end of their marriage.
1. An End and a Friend

A sequel to my fic, Innocent Games. This takes place a little more than ten years after the epilogue, meaning all the kids are grown now. As you can tell by the synopsis, this story is going to be Motomiya-clan centric, but because I love all my digidestined fools, they are all in this, every single one. With purpose. Oh, and plot? It's got more than originally planned. Why do I do this to myself?

* * *

**Remember**

**Chapter One: An End and a Friend**

* * *

It fit on the tip of his pinky finger, the white gold delicate and thin, the sparkle of the diamond barely there. Sitting just below the crease of his knuckle was its matching partner, scuffed and dirty from use.

"She's got really skinny hands."

Davis gave the ring a firm twist until it could go no further. He wondered if her finger looked as weird as his did right now, a pale ring of skin where their wedding bands used to sit.

"I wanted to get her the really big one, but I knew she'd be pissed off if I spent all my savings on it. I'm pretty sure she wanted a bigger ring, though. Probably why she chucked this one at me."

Veemon sunk at Davis's feet as they walked, looking nearly as dejected as his partner.

"I mean, it's good it's over, you know? We kinda sucked together, right? I mean we weren't happy."

"You did yell a lot," Veemon said.

Davis winced. "And threw things."

"And she was always hitting you."

"And acting like she was smarter than me."

"And she always beats you at wrestling."

"Uh yeah..." Davis went pink and quickly added, "She's a terrible cook."

"Except for her udon. She picked up some good pointers from you. And she makes good cake."

"Ugh, I'm gonna miss the cake...why'd you have to mention the cake?"

"Sorry, I'm hungry."

"Now I am too." Davis yanked the rings off his finger and shoved them in his pocket. "Ken better get here soon."

They had to kill a good fifteen minutes before Ken and Wormmon showed up. They found Davis lying like an upside down U, his belly strewn over a large stone with a pack of punimon jumping happily on his back.

"What are you doing?" asked Wormmon.

Davis groaned and swatted at the tiny digimon until they cheerfully hopped away. "Impaling myself. The punimon wanted to help."

Ken shifted the soccer ball under his arm into his hands, his long hair already tied back for the occasion. "I think you'll need a sharper rock."

"Or heavier digimon," grunted Davis.

"He's worse than I thought," Wormmon muttered.

"He's just hungry," said Veemon.

Wormmon pulled a ridiculously large backpack off his second row of legs and turned it upside down, spilling a horde of junk food onto the earth. With a pathetic moan, Davis rolled off the rock and began slinking along the ground like an earthworm before snatching a bag of Cheetos from the pile and ripping it open with his teeth.

"I shoulda married you," Davis told Ken, pieces of manufactured cheese crunching between his teeth. He rounded up the snacks into a pile between his arms. "You know how to make me happy."

Ken nodded with the kind of nod that meant he wasn't about to take any bullshit. "Yolei makes you happy."

Davis answered by tearing apart a candy wrapper into tiny pieces and stuffing the entire bar into his mouth. He jammed the trash into his pocket and his fingertips hit lint and precious metal. A lump crawled into his throat and it took him a minute to choke the chocolate down.

A soccer ball rolled into his snacks and Davis looked up to find Ken smiling down at him.

"Let's play."

After a long game of two on two, it became a game of one on one, Davis and Ken playing long after the digimon had tuckered out. They were both soaked in sweat and panting for air when they finally quit.

Davis collapsed on the ground with a groan. "I'm too old for this."

"Davis, you're 26."

"And you're mean. My marriage just failed, you could at least let me win at soccer."

Ken took a deep squat beside his friend and before Veemon could come to his rescue, had Davis's ear clutched between his fingers, pulling him to his feet.

He flailed, almost clubbing Ken in the face. "The hell, man?!"

Ken did a number of fancy dodges, tugging his ear until he finally stopped fighting. "You're coming with me."

"You coulda just asked." Davis dusted off his shorts. "Where are we goin?"

Ken shook his head and, without further explanation, motioned for Wormmon to bring him the backpack. After shuffling around, he pulled out four saran-wrapped rice balls.

Davis caught one mid-air. "Your mom made these?"

"A light lunch. We've got a little hiking to do."

Davis raised a brow, but he unwrapped the rice ball anyway and after taking a bite, moaned in ecstasy. "Marry me."

Ken rolled his eyes.

"Better yet, how'd you like to call me Papa? Your mom—" Davis was silenced by Ken's Emperor glare. "Just kidding."

He took another bite of the rice ball. "Mmmmmm. Better than sex balls."

Even Ken cracked up at that one.

Davis grinned. "Seriously, she should go into business with me. Maybe that's what the noodle cart's missing. We'll call it _Ramen Balls_. Oooh, wanna hear my costume ideas?"

"As long as it doesn't involve my mother."

"You're no fun."

After they passed the punimon village (Davis had to give them the soccer ball as a parting gift in order to keep from being smothered to death), the four friends fell into silence. Davis guzzled a bottle of water and tied his bomber jacket around his waist, briefly checking the pocket to check for the cool metal that rested inside. Maybe he could pawn the diamond and install a new fridge into his noodle cart. The old one was on its way out, already having undergone multiple repairs by none other than his soon to be ex-wife.

Davis yanked his hand from his pocket and the world in front of him came back into vision. Beside him, water was gently lapping against Digiworld's infamous swan boat. He stopped in his tracks to stare at it.

"Okay... where the hell are we going?"

"To visit a friend," Ken said, looking back over his shoulder.

"You're freakin' mystery man today, aren't you?" Davis grumbled, kicking a pebble into the lake. It sent out a shock wave of ripples, muddying the shallow water.

Ken gave him a Ken smile, the kind that didn't reach his eyes.

"Don't look at me like that. It's depressing."

Ken frowned.

"I know what you're thinkin' and you can stop. I'm fine," Davis said. "Seriously. So quit with the surprises and fess up."

"You're not going to like it."

"It's not Yolei, is it?"

Ken shook his head.

"Thank God." Tight nausea spread through Davis's chest instead of relief. "Why would it be? I mean, you all saw this comin', right? I'm surprised we lasted this long."

Ken didn't answer and Davis took another second to stare at the lake before shaking away a head full of memories. He gave Veemon a friendly kick in the tail, motioning for them to continue.

"Did she really say she wanted a divorce?" Ken asked after they had walked awhile.

"Yeah," said Davis, remembering the fight that led up to the D-word. It wasn't even one of the loudest ones they had had, but it was certainly the weirdest.

They were butt naked.

Not sexy naked. That had happened before, that kind of fight right before sex when somebody starts talking when they should be kissing, bringing up the wrong thing at a _very _wrong time, resulting in a screaming match that may or may not still end up in sex.

And it especially wasn't the after-sex_,_ somebody got offended over some constructive criticism sort of naked (that had happened before too).

This was just plain naked. Like on the way to the bathroom, scratching your ass naked. Crazily searching for something to wear naked. That you just get used to seeing after awhile and think nothing of it naked.

It was certainly not the way Davis imagined his marriage to end, shouting at each other with everything hanging out, too shocked at the ring in his hand to get dressed until she was long gone.

But then again if he went far back enough, Davis had never imagined marrying Yolei in the first place.

He let out an awkward snort and laughed to himself a bit. "She said it more than once actually. That was one crazy fight." His chuckle quickly went sober. "I can't even remember how it started."

Ken gave him a look, somehow both concerned and critical at once and Davis practically tackled Wormmon in order to steal another candy bar from his pack.

"I'm gonna be the size of a whale by the end of the month," Davis grumbled around a mouthful of caramel. "That'll show 'er."

"Sure will," Veemon agreed wholeheartedly, earning a bonk on the head.

"I'll pack veggies next time," said Ken.

"I take back my marriage proposal."

"Good, I'm not really into polygamy."

"You're missing out. I'm totally magnanimous."

"True, but also incorrect."

"I'm a total bachelor now. We should have like a reverse bachelor party – with nuns instead of strippers."

"What?"

"You know, like a bachelor party but backwards?" Davis tried to dig the caramel out of his teeth with his tongue. "It sounded right in my head... Wait a minute, what were we talkin' about?"

"Before you rescinded your proposal?"

"Before you brought up my divorce."

A moment passed where all Ken did was stare at him again.

"Where we're going?" Veemon supplied.

"Oh yeah. So I'm not gonna like your friend, huh? Is she any worse than that girl from Kyoto you dated?"

"It's not a girl," said Ken.

"Too bad."

"We're here."

Davis came back to reality as they stopped, for the first time noticing just how far they had come. He should have recognized the path, he'd walked it many times before.

A small pack of huts with brightly colored walls popped out of the dark foliage and a great sign curved above them.

_The Digidestined Memorial School for the Glitched and Impaired_

"I still don't get that name," said Davis.

"It's definitely a mouthful."

Ken took a step into the small village and it was as if he set off a friendly underground mine. A rush of digimon flew out of nowhere: a tsunomon with a stub for a horn, a chuumon that froze every few seconds while he buffered, twin yokomon stuck together by their petals, and even a numemon that was... a numemon.

Wormmon greeted them with affectionate cuddles and Davis grimaced when the numemon left a long streak of slime on his antennae.

"You guys been comin here a lot, huh?" Davis asked, carefully stepping over a scurry of metalkoromon, who kept emitting uncontrollable electric shocks.

Ken nodded. "I've been working on some new programs with Izzy that could restore corrupted code, reversing viruses completely. A couple of the students here volunteered to be test subjects."

"Digi-rats, got it," Davis said, cutting Ken short. He wasn't in the mood to listen to anything he needed to think about. To be honest, he really just wanted to collapse in front of the TV and binge on old shounen anime until his head hurt. "So who's your friend?"

Ken gave a hobbling monochromon a pat and Davis and Veemon cautiously dodged around it when it gave a loud snort.

"He's inside," Ken said, gesturing to a hut on the edge of the small village.

"He? You know I'm cool with that. I mean I'd date you."

Ken remained silent.

"You're wantin' see that adorable surprised face I make, aren't you?" Davis asked. "I can save you the trouble." His mouth dropped to an O and he fluttered his eyelashes.

Ken didn't give him the time of day.

"Guess not," said Veemon.

Davis pouted. "Okay, so in the couple seconds it takes to walk over there, let's do 20 questions. Is he a human?"

"No."

"Digimon or space alien. Check. Have I met him before?"

"Yes."

"I don't like him?"

"No."

"No I don't like him or no I do like him? Or is it coming here that I don't like because I'm starting to lean that way."

"Davis," Ken stopped feet from the door and turned to look at him. "You just have to trust me."

"Okay," said Davis. His mouth slid into a flat line. "I trust you."

"Good," Ken said. "Remember, I just want to help you."

"Dude, you're startin to freak me out."

Ken opened the door and before Davis even saw him, he knew.

The digimon sitting in the cottage held a cup of tea in his pale hands. Red markings ran up his wrists and his human smile threw chills down Davis's spine.

"Hello, Child of Miracles."

Ken was the one who answered.

"It's nice to see you again, Animamon."


	2. BFFs bring back the best memories

**Remember**

**Chapter Two: BFFs bring back the best memories**

* * *

"I'm not a child."

That's all Davis could think to say. Something about the word _child _twisted his insides in a way that even Animamon couldn't. He could still hear Yolei screaming it at him before she left.

"I'm a grownup—adult," Davis stammered. "_Adult_ of Miracles." He opened his fist after feeling the sharp stab of a diamond in his palm.

The digimon searched the room with blind, blank eyes. "Apologies."

Davis rounded on Ken, fury burning through his chest. "Trust you? I did _not _need this today. I'm outta here."

Ken caught him by the shoulder and Davis felt the prick of the diamond again.

"You don't want to hit me."

"I wanna hit _something_."

"Can you excuse us?" Ken asked and that monster actually nodded, like he was doing them a favor.

Once they were outside, Davis lost it. "What the hell is this? I knew you talked to him, but what are you now, BFFs?"

"Davis."

"I'm your BFF. Not that thing."

Ken nodded. "I'm doing this for you."

"Do you remember what he did to us?"

Davis knew he struck a nerve, but it was an obvious one that Ken _obviously_ needed to be reminded hurt.

Ken took a long deep breath and fixed his dark blue eyes on him like he knew more than Davis understood. "He's changed."

"That doesn't matter," said Davis, shoving Yolei's ring deep into his pocket so it stopped pricking him. "I haven't."

"That's not true. Everyone changes."

"Then maybe that's my problem."

"Your problem is being stubborn," Ken said and Davis flinched a little at his tone. Ken hardly ever lost his temper, but he could hear it seeping through his voice (a little too Emperor-esque for comfort) and all directed at him. "Just give him a chance."

There was a fire in his eyes, some fierce determination that Davis knew was all friendship and good will, even if it creeped him out a little.

"Fine," he said. "But the second this gets weird, I'm out."

...

"Okay, this is beyond weird."

"I imagine that the years haven't softened your memory of me," said Animamon, sipping a cup of green tea. Veemon was sitting across from him, happily eating an array of biscuits that Wormmon had provided.

"Yeah, not really," said Davis. "Kinda had to go through some therapy because of your soul manipulating ass. Dying sorta sucks, you know."

"I'm aware," said Animamon.

"Yep, super weird. When can I bail?"

"Can I just explain why we're here?" said Ken.

"It wasn't just to have tea and cookies with this psycho?"

"I abused my power in my past life," said Animamon. "My lack of sight became an excuse to envy others and the digidestined in particular. It was a mistake I've had to come to terms with over time."

"And I'm so happy for you," Davis growled. He turned to Ken. "How long has this been going on?"

"Since he digivolved to Ruachmon," said Ken. "Wormmon and I stayed in touch with the elecmon in charge at the time to keep tabs on him."

"I knew that, but…" Davis gestured up and down the digimon with both hands, not sure how else to convey his disgust.

"He can help you remember," Ken said. He stopped to take a sip of tea and Davis felt his eyebrows turn in watching him.

"Remember what?"

"Why you married Yolei."

A muscle in his stomach clenched, tightening all the way up to his throat and his head started to shake before his voice came back. "No. No. I can't believe you'd—I'm not. You've got to be kidding me, Ken!"

"I know you're not happy."

"Of course I'm not!" Davis said. "This sucks, but if you think I'm letting this asshole turn into my therapist, you're nuts!"

"I just want you to remember what you're letting go."

"What _I'm_ letting go?" Davis asked, jumping to his feet, angry with the way his voice cracked with emotion. He started to pace the hut, nearly running over the digimon in the process, including the big creepy one. "Do you think this is all me? She's, she—"

"What did you fight about?"

"I don't know!" Davis said. "We fight all the time. Our relationship sucks. _You're_ the one who needs to let it go!"

And if it wasn't for Ken's stare and the way he saw through him and all his bullshit, Davis would have left right then and there. Instead he collapsed back in the chair across from the freakish digimon and poured himself another cup of scalding tea.

He tossed it down with a grimace and felt it burn the back of his throat.

"Fine," he coughed. "Once. Just so you can say you did something. And stop giving me those damn eyes."

...

* * *

...

"I'm right, right? Of course I'm right. I'm the right one. He goes left, I go right. I'm always right. I'm _all_ right, ha ha I'm _alright_."

A round of giggles quickly melted into tears.

Matt gave a long sigh. "Why is she here again?"

Yolei buried her face in a throw pillow, pretending she hadn't noticed Sora silencing him with an elbow to the ribs. The glasses of wine she'd downed during her rant washed over her body in slow sad waves. Her arm flopped over the side of the couch and she brushed the dustless hardwood with her fingertips.

"Totally jussified," she mumbled into cotton.

"Maybe I should take you home," said Sora.

How was she not a mother already? Yolei was sure Sora had been practicing how to hover since she could stand.

"Hawkmon is probably worried about you."

Yolei's finger lifted from the ground, pointing in no particular direction. "'sin Digiworld."

"He's… wait." Sora clicked her tongue. "Does he know?"

Yolei's lips rubbed against the pillow when she shook her head and she could barely feel the ridges in the fabric. Was her face going numb?

"Yolei?"

"He—" Yolei gasped but the sob came anyway. "He's going to lecture me-eee-heeeee."

The pillow went wet, the fabric dampening with each muffled syllable while her back heaved up and down like it measured a 9.0 on the Richter scale.

Sora said, "Matt, call your brother. We're going to need a girl's night."

Girl's night started with a cup of coffee. Kari arrived juggling a tray of lattes, passing Matt on his way out. He took them from her hands and came back inside, setting them in front of the human blob on the couch.

"Take it easy on the caffeine," he said in a way that should have been vague, but was obviously directed at one person.

Kari must have frowned. "I can have one cup of coffee, Matt."

"Just looking out for my niece."

Yolei peeked from under her pillow to see Kari's hand rubbing her swollen stomach. She blew a loud raspberry into the sofa cushion. Matt's hands went up in defense when Sora scolded him and pushed him out the door.

Yolei sat up. "Do you need baby shoes?"

Kari and Sora stared.

Words seemed to run up Yolei's throat from the pit of her stomach. "I have a whole box in my closet," she confessed.

They'd been there for years now, stashed secretly on the top shelf. She had bought the first pair the week after her honeymoon: the tiniest pair of Adidas she'd ever seen with blue stripes not even the width of her pinky finger. She'd been collecting them ever since.

It was only a few months ago that Davis had uncovered them. They had been fighting (what was new?) about closet space (there wasn't any!) and in retribution to her comments about his sloppy organizational habits, he had decided to rearrange their stuff. Yolei had returned from a long day at the office to find him sitting in a pile of clothes and miniature footwear.

She immediately went on offense. "Why are you going through my stuff?!" Which was sort of a weird thing to say, since they shared everything anyway, including a bank account, which she had regretted on more than one occasion.

With red cheeks, she started scooping the tiny sneakers and sparkly slippers from the floor and waited for something bad: some teasing, insensitive remark.

Instead Davis laughed. Not his demeaning sarcastic laugh, but something more pure, the kind that warmed like sunshine. She looked at him and his eyes were already tearing up.

"Is there something you're not tellin me?"

She had felt terrible when she had to crush the excitement from his face.

"You mean the ones you—" Kari's voice went quiet. "Oh, Yolei, I thought they were for your nieces and nephews."

"I know, it's stupid." Yolei sat up and grabbed a latte from the coffee table. "It's not like I'm ever going to need them now." She wiped dried tears from her face, but that only ended up making more emerge, like her eyes were some old world miracle, a never ending well.

Yolei put her glasses back on to hide them, but it was too late.

Sora and Kari pressed on either side which only made it worse.

"That's not true, you're not even thirty yet. You might…" Sora trailed off, swallowing the words Yolei wasn't ready to hear.

It was still too soon to imagine starting a family with someone else. The thought made her reach for more wine, but there wasn't any.

So she drank a lot of coffee. When she had downed her latte, Kari offered the rest of hers and Sora made a pot, but the jitters didn't quell the sick feeling in her stomach. Yolei had said they needed to talk about something else, so they did, and then, when everything else seemed trivial, she wished she could change her mind.

Mimi came at just the right time.

She barged in the front door with an enormous basket consisting of a bottle of white wine, cookies, nail polish, a bottle of red, chips, _chocolate_ chips, and (to top it off) a pink rosé, completing the colors of the wino rainbow. It was all packaged neatly in tulle with a hand-painted sign_._

"_Bad Breakup Basket,_" Sora read. "Did you just make that?"

Mimi gave a shrug. "I have a couple on reserve."

Yolei sniffed over the steam of her coffee.

"Mimi," Kari scolded, "She just started to sober up."

"Why?" Mimi asked. The basket was placed delicately on the coffee table. She pulled on the ornate ribbon and the tulle collapsed. A wine screw appeared out of nowhere and she was already working on the cork.

Yolei held out her glass. "Why indeed?"

Mimi filled it to the rim and wine splashed over Yolei's hand when she brought it to her mouth.

"Classy," muttered Sora, grabbing the bottle away and refilling her own glass to the curve.

Mimi clicked her tongue and Sora grabbed another glass from the kitchen. When it was filled, ("Properly," Sora insisted) Yolei had already drained hers by half.

"You poor thing," Mimi cooed. "Tell Mimi everything."

The wells of Yolei's eyes miraculously refilled, because for the life of her, as sure as she was that she and Davis were over, she couldn't even remember what there was to tell.

…

* * *

_.~*~~**~~*~._

I'm not sure how long they've been there, but they're too absorbed in the computer screen to notice I'm home. I kick my sneakers off my aching feet and they hit the floor with a loud thump, but even that doesn't get their attention.

Veemon seems unconcerned. He's already face planted on our couch, digging for the remote.

"Yolei said you're late." It's Wormmon who makes the remark, smiling as Veemon headbutts his side. He looks bleary eyed, like he's been snoozing.

"Davis is home," says Hawkmon. He's perched between Ken and Yolei like the watchful, loyal bird he is. I give him a sharp salute then immediately realize how stupid I look and feel guilty for being jealous.

"You're late," says Yolei, not bothering to turn around.

"So I heard."

Ken turns and gives me a friendly wave. "We're trying to figure out how to debug her client's website."

"Fun," I grumble.

"How was your night?"

"Long." I trudge over and lean my forehead on Ken's back. "Hold me."

Yolei finally gives me attention, but she's rolling her eyes. "You said you'd be home for dinner tonight."

"Too busy makin everyone else dinner," I say, not bothering to lift my head from Ken's back. He's gotten more muscley since he started the police academy.

I frown at the pudge around my middle. You'd think pulling a noodle cart around all day would negate eating them, but my metabolism decided it was gonna slow down the day I hit 21.

"Well I made soba," says Yolei.

"Oh, soba!" chirps Veemon and he's already headed to the fridge.

I'm making a face and Yolei catches it out of the corner of her eye. She's gone into full glare mode.

"Ken said it was good."

I lift my head off his back and raise a brow at him. "Liar."

"Oh boy," says Hawkmon and he's looking at me like he knows what's coming and I should too.

I do, but for some reason that never stops me.

"I changed it like you told me to," Yolei snaps, sounding more irritated than usual. "For you."

"Fine," I groan. "I'll try it."

"Forget it."

"You just—"

"I don't even know why I bother trying. You hate everything I make."

"Just the food."

"I think I found the problem," says Ken suddenly, pointing at the screen. Yolei huffs and squints at the code and he uses the distraction to give me _the look._

I glare at him, but talk to her. "How come you didn't ask Izzy for help?"

Yolei answers, "Because he's giving a lecture in Kyoto and you invited Ken over, remember?"

"Oh." I immediately feel like an idiot. "Yeah. Sorry. There was this weird late lunch rush and then it turned into the dinner rush." I suddenly feel a little burst of pride, curling my frown into a smile. "I think I found a new hot spot for the cart."

"That's great, Davis," Ken says.

"Maybe we can get out of the red this month," says Yolei, still typing to fix whatever Ken pointed out.

I cross my arms, feeling the sting of her backhanded comment. "What are you even doing?"

"The embedded video keeps going wonky," she replies, still clicking away. "This client's entire website has been a giant headache. Whoever put it together the first time was a moron. I mean, this goes beyond simple errors. It's repetitive nonsense, assigning variables twice, mixing up true and false, forgetting to close their tags."

"How dare they," I say.

She huffs. "You know, if you don't care why are you even asking?"

"I care. I just don't get why it takes so long," I say, bristling at her tone. "You were sitting in the same place when I left. Is that all you've been doing?"

"Do you even know what coding is?" she asks, all sarcasm, so I take the challenge.

"It's that stuff with all the letters and symbols that makes computer programs work." She looks at me over her shoulder like I'm stupid. "Hey, just because I don't get it doesn't make me an idiot. My brain just doesn't work that way."

"You're right," she snaps, and her desk chair turns around completely, her feet almost whipping Ken's legs. He takes a step backward and looks like he's trying to shrink into the wall.

"You're not an idiot," she says. "You choose to be stupid."

I sort of stare at her, even though I shouldn't be shocked. She's made enough comments over the years for me to know she considers me to be the dumb one of the relationship. She's just sugarcoating it because Ken is here.

We glare at each other for a minute and for a second I think she might apologize, but then she turns back to the computer, typing so angrily that I have a feeling she's screwing up whatever she's working on.

"Wow," I say.

"You should taste the soba, Davish," says Veemon. His mouth is full of it so I grab his chopsticks and shove a pile of noodles in my lips, slurping it up as loud as possible.

"S'great!" I say through an angry mouthful. "Perfect!"

Ken has to wipe a piece of noodle from his face.

"They're fighting again," explains Hawkmon when Veemon cocks his head in surprise.

Ken collects Wormmon from the sofa. "We should probably get going. I'm pretty positive that line is the problem. Thanks for having me over," he tells Yolei before turning to me. "I'm glad you found a lucrative spot for that cart."

He puts a hand on my shoulder and gives it a firm squeeze. I don't want to be mad at him, but I am for some dumb reason.

Yolei makes me mad at everyone.

When he's gone, I turn on her and she's turned her attention back to that dumb machine.

"You know what?" I say, taking another mouthful of soba. All my words come out with pieces of noodle. "I'm not stupid. I own my own business!"

"Oh, you mean the one that put us in debt?"

She's poking where it stings again.

I go red. "You have to take risks to be successful."

"You have to know how to count too."

"What the, I can, why are you—" I fluster and pretty much toss the bowl of soba on her desk, earning her full attention again. "You're the one who told me I should go ahead and get the cart! Why are you being such a—"

"Why don't you both start with 'I feel' statements?" says Hawkmon.

"Stop trying to fix us!" Yolei yells and he shrinks back.

"Don't yell at Hawkmon," I say.

"You know what's funny?" She starts rubbing her eyes and her glasses balance on her knuckles. "You think I think you're stupid, but that's not it at all." The glasses clench in her fist and she reaches to the mouse to save her work and shut the computer down. "The thing is, if you cared at all about what I did, you'd at least _try_ to understand it. And you could. I swear you could. You just put up this dumb persona so you don't have to deal with things you don't like."

"I don't put up…" My teeth clench. "That's bullshit."

"I'm going to bed," she says and she does.

I don't follow.

_.~*~~**~~*~._

Davis nearly smacked Animamon's hand out of his hair.

The digimon pulled back, seeming unoffended, but it was hard to tell with those creepy eyes of his.

"Well, thanks for reminding me why my marriage sucked. That was fun." Davis tried to ignore the way his chest clenched at the memory, the way it felt to sleep on the couch alone. "I'm out."

He stood from his chair, ignoring Ken telling him to wait, and stepped outside of the dark hut back into Primary Village. A mass of punimon collected at his feet; they had probably followed him there. He scooped one up and let it nuzzle his cheek, trying to distract himself from remembering what had happened next.

For some reason that part hurt more: the way he'd slinked back to their bed after a particular gruesome nightmare and scooped her into his arms, still shaking; how he had let her roll on top of him the moment her lips pressed against his jaw, with only her tears as an apology.

"Not good, huh?" Veemon asked, slipping out of the hut after him.

"Not much was," said Davis.

"Ken's right then." Veemon gave one of the punimon a noogie, not even looking when Davis raised a brow at him. "You do need to remember."

"Ken's...ugh." Davis squatted down and let the punimon climb all over him, defeated. "Fine, it wasn't all bad. I know that. This is just… too much right now, okay? I don't want to think about it."

Then, just when he had finished speaking, Ken's voice raised through the hut, sharp and angry.

"I told you why we were coming. What did you show him?"

Davis frowned, looking at the door behind them and heard Animamon's calm creepy voice speak back.

"My power is great, but limited," the digimon said. "I have never had control over which memories you experience. They are brought to the surface through strong emotion, by what your subconscious wants to see. Those are the easiest for me to grasp."

"I thought," Ken started, but he stopped and it grew very quiet inside.

The punimon on Davis's shoulders started hopping, anxious for him to move, but he found himself entranced, waiting to hear them speak again.

It was Wormmon who broke the silence. "He wasn't ready, Ken. You have to give him some time to heal."

"I hate this."

Davis felt his stomach drop at the sound of Ken's voice: the emotion choking through his throat. When he and Wormmon came out of the hut, he chucked a punimon at them. It giggled in the air like it hadn't just been thrown like a baseball.

Ken caught it, staring at him with wide eyes.

Davis frowned back. "You're a bastard."

"Davis, I'm—"

"Thanks."

There was a twitch in Ken's lips, the sort of smile that wasn't really happy. He tossed the punimon back and it laughed with delight.

...

* * *

...

Her fingertips were still numb, the alcohol having yet to recede completely. The wine Mimi had brought had done it, bringing Yolei to a level of sloppy crying she had yet to achieve. Maybe it was because it was the first time she'd truly mourned for what she'd lost.

Even if it wasn't.

Yolei stared at the wavering wall of Sora's bedroom where she'd retreated when her body had finally had enough. The pillow was wet under her cheek and her eyes kept drifting to the picture on the nightstand: the one of all of them, taken sometime after Cody had graduated high school, making them all officially adults. Yolei's own face stared back at her, looking too happy.

Why did memories return so tangled when she drank? The good and bad wound together until she wasn't sure which one had happened when or if they had ever been separated at all.

All she knew was the pain gripping her chest, making it hard to breathe.

She remembered the blood on his face, the way her heart hurt when he left. Or had she left? Was she thinking about his dead eyes as she stormed out the door or the ones that stared into the abyss, resting inside a corpse?

Her D-terminal was still tucked into her purse, never far even all these years later. Yolei tugged it out and let her numb fingers drift over the keys, not sure if her sentences were coherent, just knowing that if he didn't answer she might not breathe again.

His reply came almost immediately, despite the time.

******FROM: Davis Motomiya  
TO: Yolei Inoue-Motomiya  
DATE: Today 1:13 AM  
SUBJECT: RE: Are you ok?**

**I'm alive.  
****  
****  
**


	3. A second chance

**Remember**

**Chapter Three: A Second Chance**

* * *

"I want you to give him another chance."

"Tell me one thing. What are you hoping to get outta this?"

"Your insurmountable happiness."

"Bullshit."

"Davis."

"I hate it when you say my name like that. I'm gonna go now, Ken."

"Primary Village at nine."

"I won't be there."

With that Davis tapped the red icon on his phone, turning off the speaker. His finger left a long smear of wet flour and he cursed, using his frilly apron to wipe it off.

"You two are so domestic," said Mimi, hands buried in dough, kneading.

Her kitchen was covered with ingredients, each one in it's own neat little bowl, just like the ones they used on cooking shows. Davis had always thought she had her sous-chefs do it so it looked fancy for TV, but apparently Mimi was fancy all the time. No surprise there.

Davis usually cooked pouring things straight out of their original containers, using nothing more than his eyeballs to know when he had enough.

"You should see how he's been acting," he said. "I swear you'd think we were the ones getting divorced." He pounded on a heap of dough with the palms of hands. "You think it needs more flour?"

"It's a little wet." Mimi grabbed a tablespoon and dumped it over his hands. "Speaking of, I saw Yolei on Saturday."

"Pffft!"

"No spitting in the kitchen!"

"I'm sorry." He wiped his mouth, laughing. "It's just the last thing you said is, 'It's a little wet' and then you…" Before he could finish, he imagined Yolei, rolling her eyes at him.

_Stop being so immature._

"Nevermind." He hit the dough so hard the counter shook.

"Please don't hurt yourself."

He looked up to frown at Joe, who sat on a barstool at the kitchen island, typing up some sort of doctor stuff.

"Why not? I'm in good hands."

"I'm off duty," said Joe. His fingers paused and he looked up from his laptop, one eyebrow raising under his lens. "Wait, are you serious? You shouldn't joke about self-harm."

"Omigod, Joe," said Mimi. "Don't go all psychiatric on us."

"I tried to impale myself on a rock," Davis said. "It wasn't sharp enough."

"That's not funny."

"I'm not joking."

"You two will get past this," said Mimi, breaking in before Joe felt the need to medically intervene. "It's not the first time you broke up."

Davis frowned and hammered the dough again. "I thought I was here to pound my frustrations into bread."

"With wine," said Mimi. "Joe?"

"Oh yeah, wine. The perfect companion to depression."

"Please just pour us some."

He did, grumbling about enablers and the code of ethics he was supposed to abide by.

"I miss Palmon," said Mimi. "She always gets me wine without complaining."

"Want me to pick her up from Digiworld for you?" asked Davis.

"I thought you weren't going."

Davis grabbed the stem of his glass with his wrists, not wanting to smear it with flour.

"You're going to drop it and cut yourself," scolded Joe.

"You're here." Davis took a long gulp of chardonnay and grimaced. "Ugh, I hate whites."

"Racist."

Laughing, he set down his glass, watching as it trembled on the granite. "Joe, have I ever told you how much I love your wife?"

Mimi tossed her hair, showing the wrinkled pink scar on her forearm. "Who doesn't?"

"You're a lucky man."

"So are you," she said. "I still remember your wedding like it was yesterday."

"I'm going to leave."

"When you piggybacked her into the reception hall, I literally died." ("No you didn't.") "Oh and when you let her smother you in cake and then you rubbed your face all over hers and she wasn't even mad. Ugh, it hurt. It was the cutest thing I'd ever seen."

"Okay, I'm gonna pound the shit outta this dough now."

"Mimi, let him be."

"Oh, fine, it's just he didn't see her the other day. She's miserable without him."

Davis pressed his palms into the dough without force, letting them sink there. He stared at it for a minute. "I think it's ready."

"Yes. Time to rise these puppies."

They finally went back to baking and after a few more nagging comments, Mimi dropped the subject. Once the dough had risen and they'd thrown it into the oven, they talked about their respective businesses, rolling culinary ideas off each other over wine and an assortment of chocolates Joe had picked up from the hospital's gift shop.

The oven timer went off at the same time the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," said Mimi. "Can you grab the bread?"

Davis gave her a salute and stood, already a little dizzy from the wine. When she had disappeared into the foyer, he turned to Joe with a shit-eating grin.

"So when are you gonna put a bun in _that_ oven?"

"Oh boy."

"Is that what you're hoping for?"

"Oh sure," Mimi said from around the corner. "I've got wine and cheese and chocolate and Davis and I just made fresh—"

Whatever she said stopped registering the moment he lifted from the oven to find Yolei staring at him.

She hadn't changed at all. It'd only been a couple weeks, but that last time he'd seen her she was throwing her ring at him. It felt like a hundred years.

She looked like nothing was wrong, nice and neat in a pencil skirt she'd probably worn to work. Her long hair was tucked into a bun and her eyes were round and made up under dark rimmed glasses. The soft pink of her lips pressed together into a thin tight line.

"Mimi?" was all she said.

"Bread?" offered Davis, holding out the hot pan until he thought better of it. He sort of hugged it to his chest, ignoring the burn. "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Mimi invited me," they both answered.

They turned to the culprit who had already gone back to casually sipping her wine.

"You two are so cute," she said. "I'm going to put in the brie."

"Mimi," scolded Joe. She ignored him, pulling a round of cheese from the fridge. He looked between the estranged couple, going red. "I am so sorry."

"It's fine," said Davis. "Bread's baked. Wine's drank. I'm good."

"I'm gonna go," said Yolei.

"Nope, no, you're fine." He put the pan on the counter. "I'm good. This is great."

"You're both good. Sit down."

"Mimi you can't," started Joe, standing up. She immediately put plates into his hands which he grabbed without thinking. "You can't just pull an intervention with people's marriages."

"They aren't people, they're our friends." Mimi buzzed past him while he began to set the table, grabbing another glass from the cabinet and filling it with wine. "This is for their mental health," she added, as if they both weren't there, watching her talk about them.

She forced the glass into Yolei's hands.

"I don't want any," she said, but Mimi was already off, humming as she pulled out utensils. Joe followed her with heated whispers, leaving the two of them sort of alone.

"Oh trust me, you do," said Davis, sitting down at the table and pulling out his phone. He started texting Ken.

**She's here  
I'm buzzed  
I'm gonna say something stupid  
I'll go visit the creeper again if you get me the hell outta this**

He waited for what felt like an eternity and no ellipsis appeared.

"I know you're there," he grumbled.

"Are you texting Ken?" asked Yolei, peering over his shoulder.

Davis flipped over his phone. "No."

She stared at him, hard, and he couldn't tell if she was mad or something else. "Why do you do that?"

"What?"

"Lie. Especially when it's obvious you're lying."

"I'm not," he lied.

"I don't care if you're texting Ken," she said, taking a sip of the wine she claimed she didn't want. "He's your friend."

"He's your friend too."

The expression on her face seemed to change at that, the irritation quickly fizzling away. She sat down, making sure to leave a chair between them.

"All our friends are the same," Davis said, not sure why he kept talking. "I'm going to see you all the time."

Yolei frowned. "How terrible for you."

"That's not what I meant."

But it was too late, the little bit of something else on her face had already gone hard. "You have other friends. What about the guys in your soccer league?"

"Tai?"

"Sure, fine. Or go hang out with one of the other ones."

"Do you even know their names?"

"Do you want me to?"

"Do you all like jam on your brie?" asked Mimi.

"You can't just claim all our friends," said Davis, thinking back to what she was implying. "Don't you still talk to your college roommate? She'd probably love to get together so you can talk crap about me. Just like old times."

"Blackberry or strawberry?" asked Mimi.

"Blackberry!"

"Strawberry!"

They both drank their wine.

"Water." Joe shoved two glasses full in front of them and then in a low voice said, "You guys really don't have to do this...here."

Mimi came up to the table with the warm loaf presented on a plate with more chocolate and a couple of fresh cut flowers, all neatly arranged. "Relax. Eat. Everything is better over food."

"Mimi, you're sweet, but—"

"I like food," said Davis, reaching over to rip off a piece of the loaf with his bare hands. "I'll get the cheese." He shoved the heel of bread into his mouth and grabbed his phone, escaping to the oven. He stood over it, chewing and glaring at his unanswered texts when he finally saw an ellipsis appear under his SOS to Ken. It disappeared and appeared again.

Great, he was getting a lecture.

He peered back at the table where Yolei was now talking to Mimi in a hushed voice, hand ripping under her hair, loosening the bun from her scalp.

"I mean, you're still friends," Mimi said a little too loud. She had definitely drank twice as much wine as he had and it was starting to show.

"Then why are we like this?" Yolei mumbled, just loud enough for him to hear.

"We're not friends?"

Davis's voice came out way more choked than it should have and he blamed the wine for that too. She turned to him as if she had forgotten he was only ten feet away. Her head shook, eyes flickering away, like she couldn't say it to his face.

"Right." Why did his throat feel so sticky? "Okay."

"You're friends," Mimi interjected harshly. "No matter what happens you're still friends."

He rubbed his eye with his palm. "Can I take half the loaf to go?"

"Davis."

How could she say his name so sweet when she hated him?

"You're right," he mumbled, not daring to look at her. "If we could be friends, then we'd still be together, right?"

His phone started ringing in his hands before he had the chance to read the paragraph Ken had sent him. "Gotta go. Ken's calling."

He stepped outside of the kitchen and then hurried out the front door, swiping the green phone on his screen.

"Still need a reason to leave?" Ken asked.

"Nope, I got one already," said Davis. "Can I come over tonight? I don't want to be alone."

"Sure."

The door opened behind him and his heart jumped into his throat, but it was only Joe. He was unbuttoning the collar of his shirt, looking traumatized, but his voice came out calm and steady.

"Want me to drive you?"

Davis shook his head. "Gonna take the train."

"I'm really really sorry about this. I told her it was too soon to get involved. I didn't know she invited you both."

"S'fine. I get it. I know she's just tryin to help."

Joe nodded, lips pulled tight. He glanced at Davis's phone. "Ken, can you let us know when he makes it there safe?"

"Of course," Ken said over the speaker. "He's good on his own?"

"I'm right here," said Davis. "I'm not drunk. It was just a couple glasses."

"I'll wait at the station for you."

Davis didn't want to argue, so he hung up.

"You might want to take Mimi's apron off before you go."

He looked down at his chest, lined with pink frills and the words _Kiss the Cook! _written in long cursive letters. He reached behind his neck to untie it.

"Was I wearing this the whole time?"

Joe took the apron and gave him a friendly grasp on the shoulder. "For what it's worth, she never actually said you weren't friends."

Davis pocketed his phone and looked at the door, almost wishing she would come after him, but she didn't.

"Sometimes it's the things she doesn't say."

...

* * *

...

"Long night?"

Yolei flopped into the back of the sofa and curled into a tight ball, falling sideways. Momoe's couch was the most comfortable thing ever, which was a good thing since it had become her new bed.

"Don't wanna talk about it."

"I thought you were at Mimi's." Momoe paused the television and looked at her over her glasses. "I would've waited for you. Baby's finally asleep. We're only one episode in."

A series of words were mumbled into the couch cushion.

"What was that?"

Yolei freed her lips. "She invited Davis."

"Are you two really still fighting? I thought you usually just banged it out."

"I regret telling you anything about my life."

Momoe shrugged her shoulders. "Fight hard, play hard. Ugh, babies ruin everything. I miss makeup sex."

"Please stop."

"This is the longest you've been apart since college."

Yolei uncurled from her ball. "We're getting a divorce, Momoe."

Her sister clicked her tongue. "I've heard that at least twice since you've been married. Remember the first year?"

"I don't want to."

"If you can get past all that, you'll work it out."

Yolei shoved herself to sitting and then leaned until her head was pressed over Momoe's shoulder. "What if we shouldn't?"

And when Momoe didn't answer right away, tears sprung to her eyes.

"The problem is on the surface we might make up, but all the fights, they still sit there in the past, adding up. I can hardly remember the good stuff anymore. I'm miserable. He's miserable." She tore off her glasses to rub her face. "We were better off as friends. I wish we were still friends."

"You should go home."

Yolei let out a high-pitched squeak of terror.

"Yolei!" Momoe covered her mouth with the palm of her hand. "You'll wake the baby."

She pried her hand from her mouth and hissed, "You didn't tell me Jun was here!"

She threw her glasses back on to see Jun Motomiya sauntering from the hallway to grab a bowl of popcorn from the kitchen counter.

"You're not the only one who likes to use Momoe's as a safe house," she said, popping a kernel into her mouth. "Never have twins."

Yolei felt her heart clench when Jun plopped down beside them, making the couch cushions sink. "I miss them."

"Just 'cause you and my brother are having issues doesn't mean you're not their aunt, you know."

"Thanks."

"Seriously, steal them anytime." She offered the bowl of popcorn and Yolei took a handful. "Y'know, Davis would probably curl into a ball at your feet if you showed up. He's really pathetic."

"I just saw him," Yolei said, biting back the tears that had been threatening to re-emerge. She shoved popcorn in her mouth and a few kernels flew out as she spoke. "He left almost as soon as I got there."

"Give it a couple more days. Whatever he did, he'll be groveling. That boy worships you."

"Are we talking about the same Davis?"

"My little brother?" Jun looked at her sideways. "How many Davises are you seeing?"

"None."

"It's obvious to the rest of us. Not sure why you don't see it."

Yolei frowned when she saw Momoe nodding her head in agreement.

"What? I can't agree?"

"He makes fun of me—"

"Like a preschool boy in love," said Jun.

"Pushes all my buttons on purpose."

"Please see above."

"Anytime I get mad, I'm _crazy_." She surrounded the word with air quotes.

"Boys are stupid."

"Finally."

"Look," said Jun. "You might be married to the kid, but I've got the inside scoop since I had to live with him for fifteen years and I'm telling you, he's the crazy one. For you."

"I just vomited in my mouth a little," said Momoe.

"I'm full of cliches when it comes to love." Jun ran fingers through her bangs, and they popped above her forehead in a thick tangled tuft. She looked Yolei in the eye. "I was around to witness the whole _falling for you, _you know, when you guys had just gotten home after that asshole of a digimon kidnapped you."

Yolei bit her lip and curled her knees into her chest. "I remember. Spring break. Davis covered your room in tampons."

"God, he's such a little shit. He must have spent a small fortune on that prank. Mom was still finding them when they moved. They were hanging from the ceiling like windchimes."

Jun chewed on some more popcorn. "Anyway, I had a sneaking suspicion he liked you then. All he and Ken talked about was if you were okay, if they should go see you, if they should call again, and on and on."

Yolei hugged her knees, feeling her face warm.

"After you finally came over and you guys had that fight, that's when I knew he was a goner. He was a literal wreck when you wouldn't talk to him. Lying around the house and eating and moaning about how stupid he was. I had to resort to giving him a pep-talk, which is not how our sibling relationship works, by the way.

"I've never seen him like that. Not even after the whole Kari fiasco."

A low silence followed and Yolei could feel their sisters looking at each other over her hunched back.

"That was a long time ago, Jun."

She shrugged. "Doesn't make it any less relevant. Especially considering he's acting identical to that now."

Yolei pouted, immediately thinking of how often he acted like he didn't care, shrugging her feelings off like she wasn't worth it. And then, just as she started to get angry, there was some sort of nagging push from another source that made her remember the way his voice shook when he asked if they were friends.

She hid her face in her arms.

"Go home," said Jun. "He's probably waiting at the front door like a sad puppy."

For awhile the three of them binged an old sitcom, munching on popcorn until it was gone. And then, when Yolei wasn't even sure what was happening in the show anymore, she went home.

She stood outside the door for awhile, not sure if she should knock or use her key. And then a sort of resilient anger coursed through her. She was still paying rent and her stuff was there. Why did he get to be the one who stayed anyway?

And a voice bit into the back of her mind as she slipped her key into the lock, sounding eerily like her own.

_Because you're the one who decided to leave._

The door opened to darkness and, for a brief moment, her heart stopped, a thousand flashbacks stilling it into terror.

"Davis?"

She turned on the light and found the apartment empty. It looked even smaller now that she'd been gone awhile. Their shared desk (really it was hers) was cluttered with unpaid bills like she'd left it. The chair was shoved sideways, blocking the path to the kitchen, which made her wonder if Davis had been sitting there alone, trying to figure out how to pay them. His coat was thrown over the couch instead of the hook by the door and she nearly tripped over his dirty soccer cleats lying in the middle of the foyer.

She took notes of what had changed, all the little things that normally irked her were left in peace without her to disturb them.

The kitchen sink was clean, something Davis always managed to prioritize despite his lack of tidiness elsewhere. That was another fight they liked to have. His teasing remarks about her being a dirty cook had eventually slipped into snide irritation whenever he found a dish in the sink.

It seemed like all the little things that annoyed them about each other only escalated over the years. But, for some reason, that didn't seem to matter so much now as she walked into their home without him.

The door to their bedroom was half closed and she knocked, just in case he was there. When he didn't answer she stepped inside. There was still a night light plugged into the wall and she used its soft glow to keep herself from tripping over his dirty clothes as she made her way to their unmade bed (one of the few things they actually didn't fight about, because why bother when they'd be back in it later?).

She collapsed on her side, shoving aside an old Gameboy he'd left on her pillow. She laid there awhile, wondering if he had bothered changing the sheets since she'd been gone.

Then she wondered where he was.

Her heart clenched again, feeling stupid for the worry that climbed its way up her throat and burned her eyes.

She curled into the fetal position, dug her D-terminal from the depths of her purse and started typing. She didn't ask where he was, too proud to admit she'd come looking for him.

His reply came a few minutes later.

* * *

**FROM: Davis Motomiya  
TO: Yolei Inoue-Motomiya  
SUBJECT: RE: Pulse check**

**i'm only dead on the inside**

* * *

...

* * *

Somewhere within the backdrop of his dreams Davis could hear the sound of blinds sliding open. A second later, sun burst through his eyelids, forcing him awake. They peeled open to see Ken's silhouette, lit by the morning light spilling through the sliding glass door.

"Why?" he groaned, burying his face back into Ken's couch.

"I told Izzy I'd meet him at nine."

"Why?"

"Because he has other things to do."

"Not going."

"You said you'd give him another chance."

"_If_ you bailed me out," said Davis, half muffled by the cushion. He turned his head to glare at Ken, who had stepped onto the balcony, already drinking a cup of coffee. "Which you didn't."

"When was the last time you saw Izzy?"

Frowning, Davis rubbed his eyes. "Ugh, don't guilt me like that."

"Two birds, one stone."

"You guys are just gonna talk about digicode and all your weird theories and stuff that makes me feel stupid." The moment he said it, he thought of the last time they had all gotten together, Yolei included. He suddenly felt even more tired. "Not going."

When he buried his face again, Ken came inside and put a foot in his back.

"Up."

"When did you get so mean?" Davis whined, pathetically reaching behind his back to slap at Ken's ankle. "Aren't you supposed to be the kid of kindness or something?"

"Being kind is not the same as being nice." His toe dug in. "Sometimes you can't do one without forfeiting the other."

"I like nice better."

"Up."

The only good thing about going to Digiworld was seeing Veemon. The moment Davis and Ken had tumbled out of the tiny outdated television acting as a portal and into a pile of limbs, he was grinning down at them, as if he had been waiting there since they'd left.

"Davish!"

"Hey buddy."

"Ugh, you sound sad," Veemon lisped over every _s_, making each word starting with it stand out more than it should. "Wormmon said you were sad. I hate it when you're sad, it makes me sad."

"I swear if you don't stop saying the word sad," Davis grumbled. He glared at Ken. Again. "Stop telling the digimon I'm sad."

"Come on," said Ken, Wormmon already propped on his shoulder. "We're late."

It was a good twenty minutes to walk to Primary Village. They passed the swan boat, sitting sad and empty on the lake. Davis tried his best not to look at it.

"Did something happen last night?" Ken asked after they'd walked in silence awhile.

"Not really."

Davis tugged at his fiery bomber jacket. It had grown with him, some adult version of his childhood, still clinging on. Ken's wardrobe never changed when they came. Not since his Emperor days. Digiworld made zero sense.

Annoyed, he tugged off his yellow gloves and shoved them into his pockets. They were miraculously unworn, always like new each time they materialized no matter how damaged they were when he'd left. Izzy used to theorize that Digiworld emulated their desires to make their clothes, but that was probably bogus since their outfits never changed.

Or maybe he hadn't.

He gave a low sigh. "She didn't say we aren't friends."

Ken raised a brow. "I'm not sure I'm following the double negative."

"She sorta implied we weren't friends anymore and when I asked, she just didn't say anything."

"I'm sure that's not what she meant."

"You didn't see the way she looked. Like she didn't want to admit it." Davis kicked a rock with the toe of his boot. "She's right I guess. We don't act like friends."

"Have you guys considered a marriage counselor?"

Davis gave a shrug. "Not really. I think we're both kinda sick of talking to therapists who you can't even tell the whole story too. Feels weird to drag our relationship into all that trauma."

Ken was doing his Ken frown again.

"Yeah, I know our relationship pretty much only happened because trauma, but still."

The air grew tense and the digimon seemed to sense it, staying silent.

"I think, sometimes, that maybe we weren't meant to be together, you know?" Davis kept talking before Ken could object, eyes flickering to his feet. "If we hadn't gotten stuck in that world alone then none of this would've happened. She'd probably be a lot happier."

He rubbed his nose and ran a hand through his hair, suddenly missing the goggles he used to keep there.

"She probably woulda married you."

"That's not what happened," Ken said and his voice sounded so cold Davis didn't dare to look. "You can't judge your life on _what if's_. That isn't reality."

"Maybe reality got things wrong."

"I think sometimes bad things happen for a reason."

"Or they don't. Sometimes they just happen and nothing good comes from them."

Ken stopped walking. "I know you don't believe that."

The ever-persistent hoard of punimon that frequented Primary Village came scurrying at them then, effectively halting the conversation.

Davis felt tight inside, like his soul was wringing in his body, twisting and churning all the wrong ways. The punimon started jumping all over him as usual and he tried to smile, but it came out weird and forced.

He felt a tug on his shorts and looked down to see Veemon staring at him.

"Everything's going to be okay, Davish."

He nodded, not daring to speak, and rubbed a fist into his partner's head.

"You made it."

He looked up to find Izzy, one arm filled with his laptop (as if you could find him any other way) and the other lifted in greeting. His red hair was cropped short and he wore a mustard button up over a relish t-shirt, making him look like a smart hotdog. He really needed to take Mimi up on her offer to take him shopping.

Tentomon buzzed in the air by his hand, somehow grinning without a mouth.

"Yo, Tentomon, Izzy!" Davis called, trying to sound as normal as possible. "Long time no see."

"Nice to see you," said Izzy. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, showing off the light scarring on his wrists.

Davis tried not to remember that version of him, the half-dead one hanging by his arms in Animamon's prison. His eyes instantly darted over to the hut where the creeper lived. "So, are you in his fan club now too?"

Izzy followed his gaze. "Ken told me you weren't too excited about meeting with him. That's certainly understandable."

"How are you okay with this?"

Izzy gave a shrug. "It's been nearly eleven years. Animamon's helped more digimon than he's ever hurt at this point." He sat down on a building block and cracked open his laptop, crossing one leg over the other and patting one of the jumping punimon with his hand.

"What about us?" asked Davis.

Izzy's dark eyes raised, immediately turning to Ken who stood silently beside them. Whatever the two said with their nonverbal communication made Izzy grow super serious and he closed his laptop screen to give Davis his full attention.

"What he did to us was inexcusable. I get that," he said. "But something changed in him after he was reborn. I don't know if it was Tzedekmon or just growing up under different circumstances, but he's not the same digimon he was then."

"You said you thought he could change once," Ken added.

Davis's fingernails dug into his palms. "I know, I just… I'm a little bitter right now, I guess. And it's not like I meant I wanted to be best buds with him or anything."

"I asked Animamon to show Davis some memories," explained Ken.

Izzy rubbed his chin and reopened his laptop. His fingers began clicking away without any sort of verbal acknowledgement.

"So, what are you guys meeting up about anyway?" Davis said, trying to steer Ken away from that conversation.

"Izzy and Ken have written a program that can detect growing viruses in digimon and attack them before they start," explained Tentomon.

"So, like some sorta antidote?" asked Davis.

"More like a vaccine," said Izzy. "A new virus had been going around that necessitated our involvement."

"It attacks the digimon in a way we haven't seen before," explained Ken. "It seems to cling to the digicores, destroying them from the inside."

"Woah, wait." Davis put up his hands. "When did this happen?"

"The first case showed up about a month ago," Izzy said, still not looking up from his laptop. "What makes it so unique is that it's fatal, but rebirth doesn't eradicate it. The babies are born ill and...not themselves."

Davis felt sick. "Why didn't I hear about this until now?"

"The virus disappeared nearly as soon as it began," said Izzy, not really answering his question. "There were only a few digimon affected and we've managed to get them quarantined. Now that they've all been reborn, we haven't seen any new cases. The vaccine we've created is just a precaution in case it becomes active again. And since the virus clings to the digicores rather than to their physical data, we need Animamon's help to implement it."

Davis was glaring at Ken now. "I need to know these things."

"You've had a lot going on. I didn't want to bother you."

"Oh, but you don't mind diving headfirst into my personal life."

Ken gave Davis a cool look and turned back to Izzy. "Has Animamon figured out the best course of action?"

"We can start with those most at risk in Primary Village: the youngest should respond well and then we'll move on by level. Hopefully Elecmon will agree. We'll have to let him know the risks."

"So he's a digimon doctor now?" asked Davis, glancing over at Animamon's hut. "Does he even come out of that thing?"

"Occasionally," said Izzy. "I think he still prefers the dark."

And then, without being able to control himself, a loud sharp laughter boiled up from Davis's gut. He laughed until Primary Village went blurry from the tears in his eyes, until Veemon gave an uneasy chuckle just so he wouldn't feel so alone.

"This is nuts," he gasped when the others stared at him, concerned. "I cannot, this is actually nuts. You guys know that, right?"

"Maybe you should talk to him," Izzy said, finally looking up from his screen again. "It helps to understand his motivations. In a strange way they aren't all that different from my own." He ignored Tentomon's attempt to interject and looked Davis in the eye.

"Davis, I'm as much to blame for what you went through as he is."

"I told you to stop saying shit like that," said Davis. "You're as bad as this guy." He gave Ken a rough shove in the shoulder.

"We're all guilty for something," Izzy said, meeting his gaze and holding it there. "I find acknowledging that is the best way to move forward."

Davis couldn't shake those words or the look in Izzy's eyes for a long time. They followed him like a mosquito hunting for blood, all the way to Animamon's hut.

He entered behind Ken and Wormmon, not even protesting anymore. The inside of the cottage was cluttered. Curved bookshelves lined the walls, filled with books and decor that Davis couldn't understand why Animamon would want since he couldn't see.

As if sensing the question, the digimon looked at him or to the left of him, really.

Stupid blind bastard.

Before he could speak, Davis did. "I hear you're good now or somethin."

A small smile pulled at the digimon's lips. "Define good."

He seemed a lot more pathetic like this, fingers passing along the bookshelves in order to guide his steps, all cramped in his tiny hut with his collection of tea and… were those bobbleheads?

"What the—"

"He thinks they're funny," said Wormmon. "TK brings them."

"He would," grumbled Davis, flicking one so the head started to nod back and forth.

Animamon placed his clawed fingers over one shaped like Michael Jordan, because TK would, of course. "They are amusing."

"You can't even see them," snapped Davis.

Veemon flicked him. "Don't be so mean."

"You remember I died because of this guy, right?"

"I enjoy the way they move," said Animamon. "The sound is soothing." The red markings on his face seemed to accentuate the smile there, pulling it into something too clown-like to be okay.

"So you made friends with Izzy too, huh?" said Davis. "I seriously can't believe this."

"And yet you're here."

"Ken keeps forcing me."

"I didn't force you to do anything," said Ken. He looked to Animamon. "I hoped we could try again."

"I didn't agree to that," said Davis. "You didn't even bail me out last night. And why can't you knock it off with the memory stuff? I thought I was just here to have this asshole convince me he's not a complete creep anymore."

"This is more important."

"Than trusting him to put vaccines in digicores? Seriously, Ken? Do you even hear yourself?"

"Just sit down."

Davis stared him down and when Ken didn't seem to budge, he did as he was told, grumbling.

"How does he do that?" he muttered to Veemon.

"Well, he was the Digimon Emperor once," Veemon said under his breath.

Wormmon glared at them.

"The problem with your last visit was your state of mind," said Ken. "You didn't want to remember the good because you were too focused on being angry."

"I'm angry now."

"At me. That's fine, that won't matter. I think you're still in a better place than you were last time."

"Ha!" Davis was so loud that even Animamon seemed startled. The absurdity of _that_ made him cackle all the more.

Why was everything so disturbingly funny? Was he going insane?

"Do I have your permission to tap into your memories?" asked Animamon.

Davis gave a snort, laughter still rumbling in his chest.

"Fine, sure, why the fuck not?"

_.~*~~**~~*~._

There's a tapping sound that won't stop, some persistent frantic thump that pulls me from a dreamless sleep.

It's still pitch black, something I'm not all that fond of anymore. There's something eerie about opening your eyes and still not being able to see.

It reminds me too much of dying.

I bury my face back into my pillow, trying to forget, when I hear it again: a sort of pinging knock. I flip onto my back, rubbing my eyes and see my D-terminal glowing with an unread message.

I almost knock it off my nightstand. Fumbling, I let out a curse and manage to catch it in my half asleep stupor. I flip open the top and have to squint to adjust to the light.

There's at least ten unread messages, all of them from her. I open the most recent one first.

* * *

**FROM: Yolei Inoue  
TO: Davis Motomiya  
SUBJECT: (none)**

**open your window**

* * *

What?

My eyes lift to the partly open blinds and I see a giant shadow hovering through them.

I shoot back and flip off the side of my bed, landing hard on the floor. The rapid pinging, that I now recognize as knuckles on glass, seems more desperate this time.

Half-panicked and grunting with pain, I scramble to my window and pull open the blinds. All I can see is Halsemon's enormous talons, floating four stories above the ground.

Holy… is she insane?

It takes me nearly five damn minutes to figure out how to unlock the window. It sticks when I lift it, making a sound loud enough to wake up the entire apartment complex.

"What are you doing?" I hiss through gritted teeth. "Someone is going to see him."

Then the streetlight catches on Yolei's face and I can see the wild look in her eyes, the tears running in streams under her glasses. She can't seem to catch her breath.

"I'm sorry, I had to, I can't, you—I'm not, God—"

"She's been like this for awhile," says Halsemon.

"Okay." I suck in a breath. "Just, get in here before someone sees you."

She nods, completely frantic, and Halsemon lowers down so I can grab her hand. It's freezing cold and her fingers seem too stiff to grasp mine properly. She puts a leg through the window frame and sort of falls on top of me, wearing nothing but a pair of flannel pajamas and those damn pig slippers.

"It's freezing out there," I snap at Poromon when he devolves and flys in behind her.

"I couldn't get her to stop to put on a coat," he says, fluttering above her head, all admonishment and concern. "She won't listen to reason."

"Dammit." I make her sit on my bed and pull the comforter around her heaving shoulders. I step away to flip on my lamp and her eyes close, squeezing out fresh tears. "What the hell, Yolei? You can't just go riding Halsemon in the frickin open like that. "

"I know, I—" She stops suddenly and a violent sob breaks out of her. One of her icy hands clutch at her chest. "I'm dying," she gasps, burying her face in her knees.

Her glasses fall off.

"No you're not," I tell her, closing the window. "You're just freakin out."

When she doesn't say anything else, I squat in front of her and pick up her glasses, trying to hand them back. She doesn't budge.

"Hey, look at me."

Her fingernails dig through her eyebrows and into her hairline. Her inhales are so weird and sharp that I'm starting to wonder if I should bite the bullet and wake up my parents to call an ambulance or something.

"Yolei." I have to swallow a lump in my throat. "You're scaring me."

I start choking up watching her like this and feel like a giant baby. I know what she's been through and I hate it. Worry claws inside my stomach, wringing it with nausea. I set her glasses on my nightstand and just sort of stop there for a second, trying to pull myself together.

I don't know how to help her. It's like the bathtub scene all over again and the only thing I know is what _not_ to do when she gets like this.

It also brings back a million phantom pains and the memory of her hovering over me while I watched the world fade from view.

I turn back and she's still borderline hyperventilating so I shake off the stupid feeling and go back to her.

"Please don't make me smack you," I say, because at this point that's all I can think of. I know it worked when Kari did it.

She shakes her head and grasps her hair, pulling it behind her ears. Her eyes finally lift and I can barely make out the color of them, just a hint of amber behind red and water. She hides them with her palms.

"I, I keep seeing—" she starts and then I can tell she really doesn't want to finish. Her lips are trembling and she seems to start crying all over again even though she never stopped.

I grab the comforter and rub her arms through it, trying to warm her. "What do you want me to do?"

She pulls her face from her palms and stares at me for a minute, chest heaving between her tears.

"I just, can you just distract me?"

I don't know what she was expecting, but she seems so surprised by my suggestion of _Go Fish_ that she actually stops crying. After fumbling through my bookshelf and spilling a stack of comic books, I find my basket of cards and clear a spot on the floor. Poromon checks on her, fluttering beside her head while I deal. She finally stumbles off my bed, all pathetic sniffles, and pulls the comforter like a hood over her head.

I stand when her knee hits my thigh. "You might wanna see," I say, grabbing her glasses from my nightstand.

She takes them from my outstretched fingers, looking at me weird.

"What?"

With a shake of her head, she rubs tears from her eyes and puts her glasses on.

"Go fish," she mumbles.

I can't really make out her tone: she's either preparing to annihilate me in a game for kindergarteners or she's making fun of me for suggesting it.

We spend the entire game whispering the names of the cards we're fishing for, trying not to wake my parents even though they sleep like rocks. The comforter slowly falls from Yolei's head and drapes over her shoulders, making her look like some sort of puffy purple-headed tick.

After a few rounds, I feel mentally and physically drained. It's nearly four in the morning and I can't help but yawn. I pinch my eyes, wiping away sleepy tears.

Yolei nudges my toes with her stupid pig slippers. "Your turn," she says. Her voice is still off, more flat than panicked now, and not quite her.

"I'm just gonna draw," I say, grabbing a card from the pile. "Already know you got"—I yawn again—"nothin."

"Maybe we should go home now, Yolei," says Poromon, looking just as tired. "It's quite late."

"You can't just fly outta here," I say, flicking my newly acquired card at him. Then a sudden thought springs into my head. "Shit."

I jump to my feet and grab my cell phone from where it's charging.

"What are you doing?" asks Yolei.

"Did you tell anyone where you were going?"

She looks at me blank. Of course she didn't.

"I'm texting your sister so she can cover for you."

"Oh." She doesn't even seem upset. "I can sleep here?"

I can't help it, my whole face goes red and I keep hammering on the keys, not daring to look at her.

"It's the middle of the night," I mutter. "I'll just sneak you out before my parents get up. I can sleep on the floor."

The only other time we spent the night in my room together was in Animamon's world, so it wasn't even really my room and I was still moping over Kari. I'm not sure what to expect now that we're dating, but I don't want to assume we're sharing the bed again.

She doesn't say anything.

When I finish texting Chiziru, I finally look up and find Yolei staring at me with such a strange expression that all I can think to say is, "Sick of Go Fish?"

She nods.

"Strip poker?"

And for the first time she springs back to some semblance of herself, grabbing a sock from the floor and flinging it into my face. She's as red as I am and we both try not to giggle like a couple of little kids when I pull the sock off my ear and ask if it counts as my first article of clothing.

I like it so much better when she's smiling.

I kneel beside her and start to pick up the cards. Poromon huffs about not finishing the round because the little bastard was winning, but he immediately flutters to my bed and makes himself comfortable in Veemon's usual spot. He and Wormmon are doing Primary Village duty again and my bed has felt pretty empty without him there.

Yolei hands me her cards and I start to shove them in the box, cursing when they catch on the edge, forcing me to straighten them out again.

"I can't believe you wanted to distract me with card games," she says. She's looking at me weird again, but she seems more herself, judging me like usual.

I give a shrug and cover a yawn with the back of my hand. "It worked, didn't it?"

She hits me so hard that I teeter over, trapped by her limbs.

The cards go everywhere.

We sort of land on our sides, her thighs squeezing my waist and hands tight on my back. It's like having a frickin boa constrictor wrapped around me. She doesn't let me speak. Her mouth presses into mine and it isn't until we're well into kissing that I remember Poromon and my parents sleeping in the next room.

"Hey." I pull back and her lips follow me. I mumble her name, but the rest of my words get sucked out of me (kinda literally) and I lose what little fight I had.

She's pulled the comforter over us and it's easy to pretend it's just the two of us when the rest of the world has disappeared.

It's not the first time we've made out, but it's definitely different. There's some weird dreamlike quality to it this time. Beneath the comforter, the light from the lamp glows like a sun through fog, making everything look sort of dull and hazy. There's a flush in her cheeks, a pink blooming over freckles you can only see this close.

Her chilly nose starts to thaw and her lips part, taking mine between them. I shift and cradle our heads with my arm, too caught up to care about interruptions anymore. The tip of her tongue slips against mine and heat spreads from my face down to my belly. The little hum that rises from the back of my throat only encourages her. She comes up for breath and pulls me back in to drown with her.

It gets really warm, really quick. Probably because we're hiding under a blanket in the middle of the night with nothing more than pajamas pressed between us. I can feel the inside of her thighs, her hand running up the back of my neck, her chest heaving against mine.

I'm pretty sure she's not wearing a bra and I sort of test it out mid-kiss, letting my fingers slide over the side of her chest.

She stops kissing me, so I try to play it off by slipping my hand back to her ribs. She pulls back a little more and looks me right in the eye. I don't know when her glasses came off, but they did, and I'm not sure if she's glaring or squinting.

Right when I start thinking I should apologize or something, she grabs my hand and puts it back.

Full frontal.

"Shit," I moan and she sort of looks at me funny. I give it a light squeeze and my head collapses back on my arm. "How do you walk around all day not holding these?"

She spits all over my face trying to hold back her laughter and she keeps apologizing while I'm wiping her own slobber on her neck and then kissing her there.

"So soft," I mutter into her skin, palm full of boob. I sort of go limp like that. Well most of me anyway. Then, before I can readjust, her hand wanders south, fingers slipping into the waistband of my pajama bottoms. My eyes shoot open.

"Stop stop stop stop," I hiss, grabbing her wrist before she makes it.

"Only fair," she mumbles over my lips.

She pulls me into her with her thighs and her back arches until her hips press into mine. Part of me doesn't want her to stop while the other is trying to squirm free, which honestly makes the whole thing worse and better.

"Two different bases," I gasp.

"Shhhhh!"

We both freeze.

"You two stop that human nonsense and go to sleep before you wake the whole house," squeaks Poromon.

Yolei is looking me right in the eye when she tells him, "Sorry."

Then she starts laughing, little muffled snorts that she quickly buries into my collarbone. Her thigh is still wrapped over my hip and I know she notices.

"Not funny," I mutter.

"Davis," she whispers and for a second I think she's going to say something serious, but then she lets out a stupid little snort. "Don't be so _hard on_ yourself."

She bursts into another round of giggles and I groan, all hot and bothered and roll to my back, arms splayed over my head in defeat. She doesn't really let me get away. She kisses my cheek, still giddy at my expense and tangles her leg between mine before resting her head on my chest.

Her laughter dies. Then she just sort of hugs me, grabbing my shirt in her fists. I can feel the mood change so I don't resist.

We lay there a minute, catching our breath under our comforter tent, our bodies strewn among a mess of cards and clothes I shoulda put in the hamper. My heart is pounding beneath her ear and I can tell she's listening.

"I wish we could do this every night," she whispers, her voice far tighter than it had been a moment ago, and I know she's talking about more than making out.

"I think I got used to waking up with you. And now that we're back, I keep having these dreams. Bad ones, like when I was sick. And you always…" She pauses and her chest shudders against my ribs.

I hook my arm over her back and try not to think too hard about what she's saying. My hand rests between her shoulder blades and her hair slips between my fingers.

"When I wake up without you there, it feels like you're gone. And I can't, I... I'm so scared I'm going to lose you again."

I want to tell her she won't, that we're safe now, to give her all the words a good boyfriend should, but I don't. I just hold her a little tighter and say nothing.

Because my promises are shit.


	4. Blacklists, Babies & Bobbleheads

**Remember**

**Chapter Four: Blacklists, Babies & Bobbleheads**

* * *

The sun was starting to set.

It made the building blocks and huts of Primary Village look grim. With their babyish designs cast in shadow, the colors went mute, like the version that had come back to life through Mimi's memory. Sometimes Davis wondered if that lifeless world of memories still existed on some other plane, and if the copies of their teenage bodies were still there, just bones rotting in the earth.

Grimacing, he lied back and rested his head on Veemon's stomach and tried not to disturb the pile of punimon who'd fallen asleep in his lap. He would've whined about the time (they'd literally been there all day) but he was too busy giving Ken the silent treatment.

It was totally not his style to stay quiet and he knew it was getting Ken all riled up even though he pretended it wasn't.

"If we follow that schedule, we should be able to vaccinate the entire village in about three days," said Izzy. "Once the immune response kicks in, it should be safe to let the affected babies out of quarantine. Then we can conduct some more conclusive studies to determine why the virus carried over."

"So you want to start next week?" asked Ken.

Davis saw him looking at him out of the corner of his eye so he covered his face with a dozing punimon. It let out a content snore.

Izzy must have nodded, because he said, "I should be able to work out any kinks by then. Animamon doesn't think he'll have any problem administering the vaccine as long as the patients are willing."

Davis let out a loud grumble, disturbing the punimon on his face.

"Are you still not speaking words?" asked Ken.

"Not to you."

"We're all ears if you have something to say," said Izzy.

There was another round of inaudible grumbling which they both ended up ignoring. The punimon stretched and bounced off Davis's face and onto his chest, jolting its siblings awake.

"No jumping," Davis grunted.

They nearly cried when Ken called him over to leave.

The walk back to the portal was long, filled only with the sounds of their footsteps in the foliage and Veemon's whistling.

"Was it that bad?" Ken asked finally.

Davis gave another dumb grunt.

"I really thought it would help," Ken said. "I know things weren't always easy between you two, but..." he trailed off uneasily.

Davis thought back to the memory Animamon uncovered and what had followed.

It had felt weirdly normal to wake up that morning with lilac hair sticking in a clump under his cheek. He had spent the brief time before Yolei woke watching her back rise and fall beneath his sheets and thinking of the panic that had brought her to his window.

Without even lifting her face from the pillow, she had reached up and batted his cheek.

"Stop staring, you creep," she muttered.

He smiled. "Just admirin your drool stain."

Her face finally surfaced when the pillow smacked his nose.

His mom deemed them the most unstealthy teenagers the moment they peeked out his bedroom door. Once she was assured Yolei's parents weren't worried (Chizuru said they were already at the store and hadn't noticed she was missing, to which Yolei grumbled, "When do they ever?") his mom gave them a nice scolding and breakfast. Somewhere between the tea and eggs, she served them a box of condoms. Yolei had to snort back laughter when Davis nearly choked on his bagel.

Remembering made his heart hurt.

He shot Ken a grimace when he meant to glare. "We're not talking about this anymore."

"Davis."

"I know you want to help, but I'm done. That asshole getting into my head… it's too personal. No one needs to know that stuff, okay? And all it does is make me feel like shit. I'm over it."

"You can't just give up."

"Over it, Ken."

A long dark silence hung between them.

"At least come back and help us with the vaccines. The punimon like you."

"I'll think about it."

"I think if you just got to know _this_ Animamon—"

"Okay, that's it!" Davis whipped on him, but Ken stood firm. "I am sick and tired of your weird fixation on the asshole that tried to kill us all."

"He's not the same."

He threw a palm in front of Ken's face. "You are officially blacklisted."

"Don't be a child."

"Blacklist, Ken!"

"We can talk about it later, when you're rational again."

"Veemon, did you hear something?"

"Um...yes?"

"Very mature."

"There it was again. It sounded like an annoying voice."

"Come on, Davis."

"Like a wishful whisper in the wind."

"You're being—"

"If only I knew what it meant."

"Would you—"

"But alas I am but a child, too stupid to understand."

"Davis!"

This time it wasn't Ken shouting his name. The four of them turned to find Hawkmon fluttering down from a tree branch to join them.

Davis did a sort of defensive karate stance, ready to take whatever garbage he had to dish out.

Hawkmon squinted one eye, which was the closest he could come to raising a brow. The feather in the middle of his head gave an irritated twitch.

"Would you please tell me what has become of Yolei?"

When Davis lowered his hands, looking shocked, Hawkmon explained.

"It's been more than two weeks since I've heard from her. She won't answer my messages. I've had to leave my post and you know how tiresome those pagumon can be when they're left to their own devices. Gabumon mentioned that she had been ill and when Veemon said you were sad I began to fear the worst."

Davis turned to his partner who gave a shrug and then back to Hawkmon, whose feathers had fluffed in anticipation. "Hold on. You said weeks?"

"Please don't hold me in suspense," Hawkmon said. "As her husband I'm sure you know—"

Davis flipped on Ken. "She didn't tell Hawkmon." He let out a sharp laugh and ran his hands through his hair. "You're lecturin the wrong half of this ex-whole."

"I'm not sure I'm following," said Hawkmon.

Anger burned up Davis's throat from the pit of his stomach. He glared at Ken even though it wasn't his fault.

"Tell her to talk to her damn partner," he snapped. "She can't just leave him too."

He stormed off, too mad to let himself feel the guilt of letting Hawkmon's questions go unanswered.

Veemon apologized on his behalf and jogged to catch up.

Ken didn't say anything.

...

* * *

...

"And you know what sucks the most?"

Matt frowned. "What?"

"Ken won't talk to me. I'm getting all of this second-hand. Third-hand. Davis is telling Ken who's telling Kari who's telling me."

"Who's telling me for some reason."

"If you had to pick one of us to be your friend, who would it be?" Yolei was looking at him seriously, like she expected a real answer.

Matt just stared at her.

The foliage of Digiworld seemed to thicken at that moment. They had come as close as a digiport would lead them to the area that Gabumon and Hawkmon protected and a thick forest lied between them and the plains of the Pagumon Village. Jungle-like fauna expanded by their feet and Yolei felt like it was creeping in, ready to suffocate them. Or something was lurking beneath the foliage, waiting to attack. She ripped her gaze from Matt and stared at the leaves.

"You're going to scare him off," said Gatomon, who was walking by their feet. "And then Kari will have to leave, so please stop."

"No one is picking sides," said Kari.

Yolei clicked her tongue. "Ken did."

"They're partners, Yolei. Like we are." Kari's hand was extra warm when it grasped her fingers and then she seemed to pause for a minute, trying to catch her breath.

"You okay?" asked Matt, raising a brow. "If you start having contractions in Digiworld right now, TK's going to freak."

Kari waved him off, grimacing. "No, just got a knee in the rib." She shoved on her bulging stomach and turned back to Yolei. "Like you and Hawkmon."

"That would have had more impact three sentences ago," said Yolei. She gave Kari's hand a squeeze before letting go to shove a hanging palm leaf from their path. A low sigh came up from her chest. "He's really mad, isn't he?"

"He had to hear it from Ken instead of either of you," said Matt.

"He's mad," said Gatomon.

Yolei chewed her lip. "I'm a terrible partner." Tears welled in her eyes. "For everyone."

"Yolei…"

"No, don't be sweet. It's true. I just, I know Hawkmon means well but he... I wasn't ready to hear him tell me how wrong I am." Yolei reached under her glasses to wipe sweat from her nose and keep the tears at bay. "He and Veemon are always trying to fix us. He's going to think they failed."

"I think Hawkmon is smarter than that," said Matt.

He wasn't making eye contact, but his face was still stern. Yolei was rarely subjected to an Ishida lecture, but before it even began, she immediately knew how he managed to rile people up. He didn't take your bullshit.

"It's _your_ relationship," he said. "No matter how close anyone is to it, the only one who can fix it is you."

Yolei felt very small when she caught sight of cold blue shifting her direction. "I thought it took two," she muttered.

"I learned a long time ago you can only control yourself," said Matt. "You're not wrong. Sometimes the other person won't try no matter what you do. But if you both wait for the other to change, you're not going to get anywhere. Someone has to take the first step."

"What if it's too late?"

"I think that's up to you."

"Do you really think I haven't tried?"

Matt stopped walking when Yolei did and Kari and Gatomon exchanged glances, looking unsure if they should intervene.

"I just think"—she paused, swallowing back tears—"I think he'd be happier with someone else."

"What is that saying you humans like to use?"

Tears emerged the moment she heard Hawkmon's voice. He fluttered in front of her feet from a tree branch, Gabumon following on the ground behind him.

"Ah, yes, I remember now. _The grass is always greener_ or something of that nature," he continued. "I think you would both find problems wherever you go, my dear."

"Hawkmon." Yolei's lip quivered and she collapsed on her knees in the foliage, squeezing him tight.

"Oh dear," he choked. "I've missed you, but not this."

She didn't let go. "I'm so sorry I'm so stupid."

His feathers ruffled under her arms. "No one in their right mind would call you stupid, Yolei. Fierce, on the other hand." She could feel him swallow.

"Sorry." She let him go and ran her hands under her glasses. "I know you're disappointed in me."

"I'm disappointed," said Hawkmon. "But not in you. I'm with you no matter what may come. However, I am disappointed that you don't trust me."

"I trust you," she sniffled.

"I was worried you were ill or injured or worse. I know how flustered Davis can get about serious matters and I don't imagine he'd remember to tell me if something went wrong. At least not right away."

"I—"

"And all Gabumon knew was that Matt said you were unwell when he last saw you."

Yolei stood up, glaring at Matt through her tears. "I was fine."

He shrugged. "You were drunk. If I had known he was reporting to Hawkmon I would've elaborated."

Gabumon rubbed the back of his neck, showing off his yellow belly. "I'm still not sure I understand the difference."

"There's not much of one," said Gatomon.

"So, how are the pagumon fairing?" asked Kari, looking ready to change the subject. "Any more digivolutions?"

"Just the one," said Hawkmon, smoothing his feathers. "And the other pagumon have not taken kindly to it."

"Jealous," explained Gabumon.

"Ugh, they are the worst."

"Gatomon," scolded Kari. "You think every baby is the worst."

"What are you going to do when you've got to share Kari with a human one?" Gabumon asked.

Gatomon seemed to bristle at the suggestion. "Give it to Patamon."

"We all know the moment the baby is born you're not going to let it out of your sight," Hawkmon said.

Kari smiled fondly at him and Yolei tried not to feel jealous. Of the affection she showd toward Hawmon, of the baby, her marriage.

"Where is TK anyway?" asked Gabumon.

"He's got a big deadline at the paper tomorrow," said Kari. "He wasn't all that happy we were coming without him."

"She couldn't go unless Matt went with us," Yolei said.

"Like I'm chopped liver," grumbled Gatomon.

"You both know Matt was the one who insisted on coming," said Kari, giving him a sideways smile.

Matt blushed. "Digiworld isn't a walk in the park."

"You'd think it was his kid," Gatomon snorted.

"Matt is going to be the worst kind of dad," said Yolei, still wiping tears. "His kids are all going to be walking around wrapped in bubble tape so they don't scrape their knees. Is that why you and Sora aren't married yet?"

He didn't answer, but Yolei swore she could see the dark aura ooze out of him, casting a shadow over the bright foliage.

"Ah, look who can dish it out but can't take it?"

"Yolei," both Kari and Hawkmon scolded.

"It's fine," said Matt. "She's free to think what she wants."

"You're probably better off," Yolei said then. "Marriage is the worst."

"I believe you're overgeneralizing again," said Hawkmon.

"Fine, my marriage was the worst."

"Once again," Hawkmon started, but Yolei shook her head, silencing him.

"You don't have to do that," she said. "It's okay."

"Do what?"

"Try to save us."

"I think you're looking at this all the wrong way, Yolei." Hawkmon grabbed her hand between his wings and his big blue eyes were kind, even though she knew he was still upset with her.

"I've only been there to root you on," he said. "You have always saved each other."

...

* * *

...

"Why isn't Aunt Yolei babysitting us?"

"Am I seriously not good enough for you?"

"I like Auntie better."

"But I have DemiVeemon."

Davis held his partner out like an offering and his niece immediately took the digimon by the armpits and stuffed him down her shirt.

"Davis!" DemiVeemon cried, but she had already taken off with him, giggling maniacally.

She ducked behind the coffee table to hide, not accounting for her wild mane of hair which made her look like the equivalent of a bush growing behind a twig.

The twins were like a creepy mix of their parents, all hair and energy.

Davis collapsed on the floor beside the couch with a loud groan, too worn out to chase her.

"I like you both."

He turned sideways and smiled when his nephew sat on the floor beside him. "That's cause you're nice like your dad." He ruffled the mop on his head.

"Mom's nice."

Davis burst into laughter. "Did I tell you about the time she gave me a swirly in front of my entire class?"

"What's a swirly?"

"When someone dunks your head in a toilet."

"EW!" his niece cried from under the table. "Uncle Davis is a potty head!"

"This is supposed to be a story about why your mother is a terrible human being."

"If I recall," a sweet voice called from the foyer, "that was in retaliation for the time you stuffed her diary pages in Matt's locker."

"Aunt Kari!"

Davis shot up to find Kari being impaled by the twins before she could even get the door closed behind her. Gatomon was hanging in her arms like an undignified housecat.

"Did I leave that unlocked?" he asked.

Kari wiggled a key from her hand. "Tai gave me a pair."

"Wait, how come I'm the one stuck babysitting the kids, but I don't even have keys to their apartment?"

Kari shrugged and adjusted her swollen stomach, making her sundress flow by her knees. The twins let go and she had to squat awkwardly to let Gatomon down. "Are you really telling them horror stories about Jun?"

"True stories. And the diary thing was well-deserved. Plus, she kept whining about how Matt just didn't know how she felt about him, like that was the only reason he was dating Sora." Davis cackled. "Oh boy, did he know then."

"That was terrible."

How was it that Kari could still make him feel ashamed of himself, even after all these years?

Davis frowned. "She broke my Sonic game in half just 'cause I wouldn't let her have the TV."

Kari smiled that sweet smile at him. The one that meant she didn't approve, but loved him anyway. A long time ago, it was the one he went crazy over.

Today he wanted to chuck a pillow at it. So he did. She caught it and looked at him wide-eyed.

"I will scratch you," warned Gatomon.

"As long as it's deep," Davis groaned, swiping a finger across his neck.

"Gatomon, can you go help out DemiVeemon?" Kari asked.

"She's too good to you." Giving Davis the stink eye, Gatomon sauntered away. "Ayame, give me the little twerp now."

"NO!" the little girl cackled, running back to her terrible hiding spot.

"I'll help," her brother said. "Don't be such a brat, Ayame."

"Hikaru's the good one," Davis said, watching the little boy go. "No wonder they named him after you."

Kari looked down at him. "Are you okay?"

Davis sort of pouted and rolled onto his side and away from her. The last thing he needed now was a lecture from Kari of all people. She was probably the only person who could make him feel like complete garbage while still being a total sweetheart.

He could feel her approach and then, with a low awkward grunt, she was on the ground beside him. Her legs stretched out into a V as she rested her back against the couch. It took her a good few minutes to get comfortable.

"I hope you're happy," she said. "I'm never getting up again."

"You shouldn't have gotten down."

"I'm worried about you."

"I'm fine."

"You just asked Gatomon to slit your throat."

"That is—" Davis flipped over to face her. She had that look, the soft one that saw right through you. "I'm just joking, jeez."

"Joe said you were depressed."

"Joe's not—"

"You tried to impale yourself on a rock?"

"I'm not suicidal, Kari."

"Then don't joke about it."

He threw his arm over his eyes, not wanting to look at her anymore. "Why are you here?"

"I thought you could use some help," she said. "Those two really need a tag team."

"God, I'm so glad we didn't end up together."

When Kari stayed silent, Davis almost didn't dare to look at her from under his arm, and when he finally peeked, she made a show of rolling her eyes.

"I'm serious," he said, tossing his hand at the twins, who were knocking over chairs in a battle for the digimon. "Look at those genetics. Kamiyas and Motomiyas should not mix."

A pillow slammed him in the face so hard his nose hurt. "Shit, Kari!"

"Language!"

"Shit!" Ayame chirped from under the table. Her mouth was stretched into a devious grin.

"Davis!" scolded Kari.

"Oh please, have you met their mother?" Davis asked, rubbing his nose. "Or their grandpa? Where do you think I got it from?"

"Don't say things like that," Kari hissed. "They'll get a complex."

Snorting, he started, "They already—"

"No." She tugged the pillow from his hands and batted him with it again. "You keep your comments to yourself. They're perfect."

"You know what's perfect?" Davis grinned up at her. "That Takaimiya spawn that's about to bust outta you."

"Why does it sound like you're referencing _Alien_?"

"That's basically how it was with the twins."

"It was a C-section, not a massacre."

"I wish we'd had kids."

Kari looked at Davis with such a strange expression that he quickly corrected himself.

"I mean me and Yolei. I've already established Kamotomiya kids are a no go."

And then Kari looked so sad that he sat up. "Hey, I'm just joking. The twins are great. Our kids woulda been great probably. Why do you look like you're gonna cry?"

His hand went to her shoulder at the same time the door swung open. They both turned to see TK standing in the foyer.

Davis yanked his hand back.

"Please don't tell me this is a high school repeat," said TK.

"Uh…"

Kari pouted. "TK. Don't make him nervous."

TK smiled and, when he took off his fedora (what was he trying to look like? Some 1920s detective? what a dweeb), he had to brush a stray lock of blonde out of his face. It had gotten long enough to tuck behind his ears and look super stupid on him.

"I'm kidding. Relax, Davis." He grinned when Davis frowned at him. "Matt dropped Kari off. We wanted to save him some driving time and this is about halfway."

"Kari got sad cause I said our kids woulda looked weird."

"That's not why, you said," Kari stuttered, "I didn't."

Davis collapsed back onto the floor and threw his hand back just as the table banged upward. "Exhibit A."

"The twins?" TK asked.

Gatomon hissed loudly and ran until she was behind his leg. "Tell me you brought Patamon."

"He went back to Digiworld with Upamon," said TK.

She groaned. "Your child better not be like this."

"Gatomon!" Kari scolded.

TK grinned and made his way around the couch to take a seat on it. He kissed the top of Kari's head and nudged Davis with his foot.

"Why are you on the floor?"

"I was trying to seduce your wife and spawn by telling them how awful our hypothetical children would be," said Davis, glaring a little. "Stop pretending to be jealous. Kari and I are related now. Don't be gross."

"You and Tai being brothers-in-law does not make you related to Kari."

"Yes it does. Hell, practically all of us are related. We're at each other's Christmases. Like one big dysfunctional family."

The door opened again, drawing everyone's attention to it.

Jun was wearing a knee length cocktail dress and had managed to get her crazy hair into a big poofy braid. Pieces were already popping out around her face, riled up from _no one wants to know_ what.

"I didn't know it took three adults to watch two five-year-olds," she said. "Makes you wonder how we manage." She leaned forward, kicking off her heels and Tai popped over her shoulder, his tie loose around an unbuttoned collar.

"Aw man, this looks way more fun than dinner," he said.

"Daddy!" cried Ayame, running toward Tai and impaling his legs so he buckled back. He picked her up and then reached down to hoist the only slightly less energetic Hikaru on his other hip. They both reached for Jun, chanting, "Mom, mom mom!"

"Get ready, Jun," said Tai. "I'm not going easy on you this time."

"Bring it," she said, squatting like a catcher.

"Ugh, how did she turn you into such a dork?" Davis asked while DemiVeemon collapsed onto him, finally free.

Jun shot him a glare before turning back to Tai. With a heave of his hip, Ayame went flying into her arms. "Okay, I've got the heavy one. Toss the pipsqueak."

"Hey!" Hikaru yelled indignantly.

"Nah, I think I'll keep him," Tai said, throwing his son over his shoulder. "Bed time!"

"Why does the fun always stop when you come home?" moaned Ayame.

"Because we're your parents," said Tai. He leaned over the couch, dangling Hikaru upside down. "Why does it look like you killed your uncle?"

"Which one?"

"The one on the floor."

Davis looked up, tossing the throw pillow so it bounced lightly off Hikaru's head. "I was hoping if I played dead they wouldn't eat me."

"We're not bears!" Ayame said.

"I don't think that's true anyway," said TK.

"Ugh, don't fact check a five year old, dude. You'll get into a battle you can't win, trust me."

"I know all the animal facts," said Hikaru proudly.

"Say goodnight to the aunt and uncles," Jun said. "They look like they need to drama."

After a bit of fussing, the Kamiyas managed to corral their children into their bedroom.

"This house is never quiet, is it?" TK asked.

"Just wait," said Davis. "This is your future."

"I thought you said the Takai…"

"Takaimiya."

"That our baby was going to be"—Kari paused and grunted mid-stand when TK helped her off the floor— "perfect."

"I was just being dramatic. You're never sleeping again."

Kari gave a long yawn.

"Won't be much different than now then," said TK. "She's up all the time."

"Leg cramps," she moaned, reaching down to rub one while TK supported her arm.

Davis watched the two of them and felt jealous for reasons that he never would have imagined years ago.

"Why are you bringing bobbleheads to Animamon?" he asked.

TK's head whipped up.

"There's gotta be a couple dozen of those things in that weird little hut," Davis said, rubbing DemiVeemon's ear in an attempt to look nonchalant. "You guys are really that cool, huh?"

"Davis…"

"I'm starting to hate my name." He looked up to see Kari and TK looking at each other and back at him.

"Ken brought me," he explained. "He's been really weird about wanting me to get to know the guy. What's up with that?"

He didn't mention the memories, not about to open that can of worms.

"I spent a lot of time with him when he was Ruachmon," TK said, sitting back down on the couch. "Ken and I both, actually."

"When did Izzy get on board?" Davis asked.

"Not long after, but they've always been strictly professional."

Davis snorted. "Professional."

"I know it seems strange, but he's been an incredible resource for the school," said TK. "Kari hasn't been back since he's digivolved."

"I'm not comfortable with it either, Davis," she said. "He… it brings back too many memories."

Another loud snort escaped Davis's nose, rumbling into laughter.

"Stop sounding like you're having fun out there!" Jun shouted from the bedroom.

"Oh, we're having loads!" Davis shouted back.

"I'll take care of it," said Tai and he soon emerged from the hall, looking concerned. "I know that laugh." He turned to Kari. "Is he having a breakdown again?"

Davis let go of DemiVeemon to hide his face with his arms. "Oh jeez."

"I know this whole thing with Yolei's gotta be rough."

"Did you know Animamon's got a collection of bobbleheads?" asked Davis, eyes still covered. He could hear Tai's footsteps approach and the sound of the couch indenting as he sat down.

"I heard something like that," he said.

Through the small crack under his arm, Davis saw the way his right hand flexed, like he was making sure it was still there.

"You know what's even weirder than that?" he asked and when no one took a guess, he gave a loud snort. "That you married into my weirdo family, to my weirdo sister and had your weirdo kids."

"What can I say? You were right," Tai said, sounding much too fond for being insulted. "She devoured my guts."

Light laughter broke out under Davis's arm. "I can't believe you're still married and I'm not."

"You're still married," said Kari. "You've only been separated for a couple weeks."

Davis shook his head and his arm slid downward so he could rub his palms over his face. "I'm the worst. I made her leave me."

"I don't think you can make Yolei do anything," said TK.

Davis uncovered his face to glare at him even though he was right. "Fine, I made her want to leave. Is that better grammar for you?"

TK just smiled at him. "Are you going to try to get her back?"

"Why? So she can yell at me some more and we can make each other miserable?"

"I don't know, you seemed slightly less miserable before."

"Great. So my life choices are miserable or slightly less miserable. Perfect." He rolled onto his stomach, making DemiVeemon hop off and watch him with teary eyes while he buried his face in the rug. "Wake me up when I'm dead."

"Stop being so morbid," said Kari, putting her arms out for DemiVeemon to hop in. "You're making DemiVeemon sad."

"And you look pathetic," chimed in Gatomon, who earned a flick in the ear from her partner.

At that moment, a door down the hall opened with a not so quiet threat to the children to stay in bed. The floorboards squeaked and then Davis heard his sister's very distinctive annoyed sigh.

"Why don't you go mope at Ken's?"

Davis flipped back around to stare her down. "Things Jun will never say: 'Thank you, Davis, for keeping my kids alive while I went out and did gross things with your beloved mentor. Here, why don't you put your feet up? Have a beer. Stay as long as you like, you deserve it.'"

Jun gave a classic eye roll. "Please, you love watching the monsters."

"Ugh." Davis rubbed his eyes with his palms. "You're right. I wanted kids so bad. Guess it's better we didn't have any. We woulda ended up like the Takaishidas."

"Watch it," said TK.

"Please get off the floor."

"Anyway, I'm not talking to Ken." Davis glared at the ceiling. "He's blacklisted right now."

"He's worried about you too," said Kari.

"I really wish everyone would stop talking about me."

"It's because we care."

"Then go harass Yolei. She's the one who threw a ring at me."

Everyone got awkwardly silent for a minute. Long enough that Davis started to go a bit pink.

"Matt just gave her a lecture," Kari said softly.

Davis did a quick sit up. "Wait, what, when?"

"We went to see Hawkmon today," she continued and then stopped and grimaced, shoving the side of her stomach.

"You okay, Kari?" asked Tai.

"This little girl likes to shove her butt in my ribs," she sighed and immediately got back on track, looking Davis right in the eye. "We all just want to see you work this out. You've been through so much together."

He wrung his fingers, letting them bounce over his knees. DemiVeemon immediately hopped off Kari's lap and nuzzled his knuckles. He unwound them to stroke his ears.

"Sometimes I think that's the problem," he muttered. Swallowing back the lump in his throat, he tried not to look at the two couples on the couch, at their perfect marriages with their perfect kids/almost kid.

"If that bastard hadn't taken us, I don't think we'd be together at all."

No one really had much to say about that.

After Kari and TK had said their goodbyes, Davis grabbed DemiVeemon and stuffed a leftover slice of pizza in each of their mouths. Tai caught him at the door while he was still chewing.

"Ken took you to see Animamon?"

Davis gave a nod and wiped his mouth with his arm. "Did you know there's a virus going around in Primary Village?"

"Izzy mentioned it," Tai said, brows creased so tense that the light scarring on his jaw wrinkled.

"It's creepy." Davis ran his tongue over his teeth, trying to clear off the tomato sauce. "And so is that guy. Do you think we can trust him?"

"I think it's easier for some of us than others," said Tai. He ran a hand through his hair, which was about half the size it used to be, but still just as wild. "I don't know. I trust Ken and TK. And if Izzy can move past it…"

"If Yolei knew all this, she'd lose her shit," Davis said. "I don't like holding grudges, but my whole life got screwed up because of that guy."

Tai seemed to soften then and his hand fell on his shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze. Davis suddenly felt young, like he was a kid again, looking up to his hero. He couldn't help but notice the way Tai flexed his fingers, like he still remembered what it was like to have them missing.

"I think you're forgetting the good parts," he said softly. "I can't say that I understand how you feel. You and Yolei went through the worst of it. If I could change one thing about the past, it would be saving you."

Davis felt a sting rise behind his eyelids and he shook his head, but Tai kept speaking.

"I also know that we wouldn't be where we are today if Animamon didn't do what he did. I don't know if you know this, but you were the catalyst that brought us all back together. It wasn't worth it. But it was still good." Tai took a deep breath. "I don't know how to explain that without sounding like a complete dick."

Davis laughed a little and wiped the tears emerging from his eyes. "Yeah, you do sound like a dick."

Tai smiled and it was too reminiscent of Ken's, the kind that was still sad. "I trust you, Davis. Whatever happens, I know you're going to do the right thing."

"You talking about Animamon or Yolei?"

"Both."

...

* * *

…

She watched him decay.

She couldn't even remember what she shouted as he stood there, bruises blooming, bone splintering through his skin. And whatever he said was lost through the blood gurgling through his mouth.

All his teeth were painted red.

He didn't speak anymore, just laid on that forest floor while she and Ken wept over his lifeless eyes.

His chest went rigid beneath her hands and hers burst open, all the rot and death pouring out with him.

Yolei shot up, gasping, frightening Poromon from his spot on her chest when she grasped it in panic.

"Yolei!" he squeaked. "Are you alright?"

Her head shook over and over until she could finally nod instead.

"A nightmare?"

"Memory," she said, wiping tears from her face. "I just...let me just check, okay?"

Momoe's comfy couch sprung up beneath her as she reached for the purse on the coffee table. She dumped its contents until her D-terminal came loose.

She typed the same message she had a thousand times before and hoped for an answer.

"It's the middle of the night," Poromon complained. "He's probably asleep."

But a green light blinked almost immediately, indicating his reply. Yolei had to put on her glasses to make sure she had read it clearly.

**FROM: Davis Motomiya  
TO: Yolei Inoue-Motomiya  
DATE: Today, 3:24 AM  
SUBJECT: RE: pulse check?**

**How long are we gonna do this?**

Her heart slowed from panic, but a new ache came, wringing into her chest. For what felt like an eternity, she just stared at his words, guilt roiling, and didn't know what to write back.

"He hates me," she whispered.

"You know that's not true."

She typed anyway.

**Yolei: I'm sorry. I guess I shouldn't bother you anymore.**

**Davis: It's just weird to keep talking to you in the middle of the night without really talking to you.**

She stared for awhile at that.

And then she kept typing and backspacing a reply for so long that he sent another one before she was finished.

**Davis: Were you here a few days ago? **

**Yolei: I came to get a couple things.**

**Davis: You could have called.**

When she read that, she swore she could hear him snapping, that tight tweak in his throat that started whenever she had pushed the wrong button. She immediately went on defense.

**Yolei: Where were you anyway?**

**Davis: I dunno. Work?**

**Yolei: ****At 11PM?**

**Davis: Ken's? Why were you coming to get your stuff that late?**

**Yolei: ****Why does it matter?**

She waited for a response for a long time, fingers tapping impatiently over the keys.

With every minute that passed, she felt a weird combination of fury and dread building inside her, the two mashing until they spread like heat in her chest.

Like an infection moving through her bloodstream until she couldn't breathe.

He never wrote back.


	5. Ramen for One

**Remember**

**Chapter Five: Ramen for One**

* * *

Steam rose from the uncovered pot, blasting the air with the scent of fresh ramen to serve. Davis carefully scooped a ladle full and put it in a bowl, adorning it with a poached egg and a couple of fresh herbs and ginger.

The afternoon sun beamed through a canopy of leaves from the park he'd set up shop in, bright and cheery and probably too hot for soup.

"Ramen for one," he mumbled, pushing the door to the cart open.

Sneakers scuffing on the pavement, he joined Veemon on a park bench. His partner was dressed in a large hoodie, which made him look super suspicious considering it was still nearly 80 degrees in the middle of October.

"Two technically," Veemon said, slurping up the last of his own bowl.

Davis poked at the egg in his soup, sending runny yoke over the noodles. He stared at it for so long that it started to cook in the broth.

"I'm already sweating," he complained. "No wonder we've only had four customers all day. When is fall gonna get here?"

"Technically it's already here," said Veemon.

"What's up with you and technicalities?"

Veemon shrugged.

"This heat wave sucks. It feels like August. Ugh, I hate summer."

"It used to be your favorite season."

"It was until I started selling ramen. This is fall food. Winter food. Even spring food. But summer? Everyone wants salads and sushi. No wonder we're in debt right now."

Davis grabbed his noodles with chopsticks and slurped up a mouthful. His eyes immediately slipped closed. "So worth the sweat," he moaned. "Do you think I'm just biased cause I made it?"

"No," said Veemon. "I'm having more."

"You're a living garbage disposal. Your opinion is worthless."

Veemon grinned as he disappeared into the cart to serve himself. "So why ask?"

Davis stirred his bowl and watched a jogger pass, completely uninterested. "Yolei said my problem was marketing. Maybe I should take some selfies with the ramen and post 'em on Instagram. Caption 'em: _Worth the sweat._" He wiped some off his nose.

"They might start questioning your broth." Veemon poked his nose out the door. "Doesn't she work near here?"

Davis shook his head. "You're thinking of Sora. Oh! I bet I can guilt her into some ramen." He put his bowl on the bench and sent her a text. She wrote back right away.

**You should have told me you were here! I already have a lunch date at the Italian place down the street. Sorry. **

Davis gave a sort of scoffing snort and wrote, **My noodles are better. Ask Matt. He'd ditch that place for me.**

A moment passed without her typing a response and he hammered out another line.

**On the house? No one wants ramen today. All my food is gonna go to waste. Please eat it.**

And then when an ellipsis appeared and disappeared with no new text to accompany it, he wrote again.

**Wait is it not Matt? You can bring your date. My lips are sealed. :X**

The ellipsis returned, followed by Sora's text. **For a second I thought that was the kiss emoji. Date's just a friend, don't worry.**

Davis grinned. **Oh good. I'm bad at secrets.**

Sora wrote back, **I'll see if anyone in the office still needs lunch. They keep it sub-zero in here. Something hot sounds amazing. I'll play up the ramen a bit. **

**Play it up? You mean speak the truth.**

**Of course. *Ramen emoji* * heart emoji***

Davis sent about a dozen hearts back and ended with a broken one. Just to be real.

He shoved his phone in his pocket and his mind drifted back to his D-terminal, still sitting on the nightstand with Yolei's last message left unanswered.

_**Why does it matter?**_

It shouldn't. He shouldn't let her words follow him all day, eating him the same way he ate his ramen. One stupid slurp at a time.

He sucked down a mouthful of noodles in the most angry way possible and replayed their short conversation over in his mind. The moment he had told her she could call him it was like a bomb went off and she put a shield between them.

She definitely didn't want to be friends.

He had to blink like a flirting geisha in order to keep himself from crying into his ramen like a loser.

Thankfully it worked, because in a few short minutes he had a line of customers. Sora appeared behind her hoard of coworkers and Davis wouldn't start serving them until he had hugged her properly.

When he called out the first order and got a fist full of cash, he let out a content sigh. "You are the best."

The man accepted his ramen, a little unsure. "Thanks?"

Davis beamed. "You too."

He leaned out the cart window to grin at Sora who had sat on the bench beside Veemon, giving his hooded head an affectionate rub. Her long legs were crossed under a pencil skirt, foot bouncing inside a heel. She looked every bit the part of a professional woman, her short hair pinned back by a flat black barrette and lipstick stretched over a soft smile.

It made Davis painfully aware of how quickly time passed.

"So who's your date?" he asked her after greeting another customer.

Sora looked up at him, smiling. "An old girlfriend. She got caught on a call, so I told her I'd bring her some."

Davis took another order and swiped a credit card on his phone. "You didn't have to cancel your plans cause of me, y'know," he said. "I was just giving you a hard time. You all could've gone to your fancy restaurant."

"She actually really wanted ramen."

Davis disappeared into the back of the cart to prepare another couple orders and shouted back, "Oh, just ramen in general?"

"Definitely yours."

He could feel his grin stretch past his face. After the line of her co-workers was served, Sora handed over her card. He shoved it back in her hands.

"I don't take digidestined money."

"Davis."

"Please, I woulda wasted half my goods if you hadn't talked me up to your friends. Might just break even today. Keep it."

He handed her two covered bowls of shoyu ramen with strips of pork belly, green onions, ginger, nori and egg all displayed brightly on the surface.

She took it from him and while he scrambled for a _to go_ bag, she asked, "Did you mean to send the broken heart?"

He sort of froze for a second and then made a show of flapping the bag in the air to get it open. "Maybe?"

"How are you doing?"

Davis held out the bag and she stuck the bowls inside. After handing it back, he took off his gloves and wiped the sweat off his nose.

"What do you know about Animamon?" he asked. "The new and improved version, I mean."

Sora looked to Veemon, both of them knowing this was clearly a diversion, but she was too nice to not let it work. She sat back down on the bench and sat the food in her lap, which he knew she'd regret in .2 seconds.

Davis left the cart to sit beside her. He moved the ramen to the bench between them before her legs melted.

"I don't know how improved he is," Sora said. "I've only seen him once. Before he evolved. He seemed sweet enough, I guess. Back then it was hard to think that Ruachmon could ever become Animamon someday. Now that he is, I'm not really sure I could handle seeing him again."

Davis watched her pick at her fingernails.

"Why not?" he asked.

"I just, it's hard not to separate him from that monster, you know? When Ken and Yolei came back without you, I - everything spiraled. Tai and his arm, and then Yolei got worse... " She sort of paused there, her fingers stilling their mission. "I just think seeing him would bring that all back and I'm not sure I could handle it."

There was a long lull between them. A sort of soft silence, the kind that was only comfortable with someone like Sora.

Davis thought of everything that had happened after he'd joined Izzy in Digiworld.

Of fevers and decay.

"I wish I'd been there," he muttered.

When Sora grabbed his hand, he didn't even care how sweaty his was.

…

* * *

...

"Why did he have to be such a good cook?"

Yolei didn't mean to whine, but her voice always seemed to follow her emotions, despite her best efforts. And everything just seemed so unfair.

"He really is," Sora admitted. She slurped up another mouthful of noodles, splashing her pretty blouse with broth.

The cafeteria on the ground floor was beginning to empty, which meant they were getting a clear look of disdain from the cashier for the outside food they'd brought in.

Yolei lifted the bowl to her lips and gave the broth an extra loud slurp for her benefit. The cashier rolled her eyes and finally stopped staring. Yolei took the opportunity to sneak in a round of noodles to the round ball of feathers in her oversized purse.

"About time," grumbled Poromon, nibbling at the noodles like a baby bird eating a worm.

"Sorry," Yolei said "The cafeteria lady has been glaring for the past half hour. Didn't want her to see me shoving noodles in my purse."

Poromon swallowed and the little feather on his head twitched. "At least it's real food."

Sora's brow raised in question.

"We've been living off TV dinners and takeout," Yolei groaned, running her fingers into her hair. Strands came undone from her tightly weaved bun, tickling her cheeks.

"That's terrible. Why don't you come by for dinner tomorrow? I'll have Matt cook for us."

"And endure his judgment again? I think I'll stick to my Easy Mac, thanks." She tugged at a strand of hair. "Is he mad at me?"

"Who, Matt?"

When Yolei nodded sheepishly, Sora shook her head.

"Are _you_ mad?"

"Should I be?"

"I sorta brought up the fact that you guys weren't married yet." Yolei chewed the inside of her cheek. "I'm sorry. I was being super reactive. I'm really emotional and skeptical of all things love right now."

For a moment, Sora just stared at her and then she smiled, the soft kind that started in the center of one cheek. "When we were in college we agreed to wait until we'd been on our own awhile," she said. "I don't think I really have too many doubts anymore, but I didn't want to rush into anything just because that was what was expected." She stirred her broth. "And I might still be rebelling against my mom a little bit."

"She hated when you moved in together, didn't she?"

Sora laughed. "I think she'd given up by then. She was just happy we were doing something. I think she expected grandchildren by now."

"Do you want kids?"

"Definitely, someday."

"Me too," said Yolei and when Poromon looked up at her with his big sympathetic eyes, she turned her gaze to the window.

At the far corner, nearly out of sight, she could make out the edge of the ramen cart. Her heart drummed in her chest, both hoping to see him and dreading that he might catch her looking.

"You should have come out with me," Sora said.

Yolei quickly turned from the window. "I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to talk to me anymore." She shoved a green onion around with her chopsticks, making it sink into the last bit of broth at the bottom of her bowl.

"What gave you that impression?"

Yolei looked at Sora for a long moment and then out the window again. Then, with a wordless dig into her purse and an irritable squawk from Poromon, she pulled out her D-terminal and handed it over for inspection.

Sora read through their last few messages, eyebrows raising further with each pass of her eyes.

Yolei let her cheek sink into her palm and she continued to play with her broth, watching the spices swirl in the shallow puddle, making it murky again.

"What part of this makes you think he doesn't want to talk?" Sora asked, handing it back.

Yolei looked at her over the top of her glasses. "Everything?"

"He's practically begging you to call him."

"Um no, he said he didn't want me to show up to _our_ apartment unannounced."

"That's not how I read it."

Yolei's scrolled through their messages and felt her eyes sting. "I just wanted to make sure he was okay."

Sora nodded toward the window. "Why don't you go ask him?"

Something tightened in Yolei's chest, like a fist holding her heart until it couldn't beat. It took her a minute to pull herself together.

"And admit I gave up our lunch plans for his ramen?" Her voice came out stiff and strangled and she covered it with a laugh. "His head is big enough already."

A silence passed between them and Sora kept smiling that soft, knowing smile.

Yolei fed Poromon another bite of ramen and glared out the window. "Big fat stupid head."

She was outside the building a few minutes later, but the cart was already gone.

…

* * *

…

Davis was sick of sleeping alone.

Falling asleep was fairly easy (he was usually so done after a long day of pulling the noodle cart that he conked out the moment his head hit the pillow), but the waking up was another story. And he was waking more through the night than usual, dreams and memories prodding at him until his eyes opened to the empty pillow by his side.

Veemon was there most of the time, curled sideways over Yolei's usual spot, snores rumbling. But even a foot in his side barely woke him and after a short grumble he was back out, leaving Davis alone in the dark.

It gave him too much time to think, which is something he never really enjoyed doing anyway. No matter how much he tried not to, he kept replaying old conversations in his head, wondering where things went wrong. His eyes drifted to his nightstand and the pair of rings lying among the junk there, gathering dust.

Frustrated, he slid out of bed and decided to go for a run. He wasn't quiet about digging for his shorts and t-shirt, half-hoping Veemon would wake to join him, but the digimon didn't budge.

By the time he was outside, the sky was beginning to gray and the street lights flickered on and off, getting ready for the morning. The world was still silent, only breaking for the occasional car or bus bringing the early risers in for another day at the office.

The in between, when the streets went empty, felt too like a world without life.

Davis suddenly felt so tired that he almost went back inside, wondering what had possessed him to go out at such an ungodly hour. There was a reason he didn't sell breakfast food.

When he came back, mind blissfully numb and arms covered in goosebumps from the cold, he decided to skip out on the cart altogether (it wasn't making enough to pay rent on his own anyway) and make a trip to Digiworld.

He woke Veemon with a big fake grin, oxygen and nerves running through his pores.

"Get up, lazybones."

"Wha?" Veemon blinked wearily and looked at the alarm clock, which had only just crept past 5AM. "Why are you awake?"

"Workin out. New me or somethin. Let's go to Digiworld."

"Now?"

Davis gave a nod. "We're going to see what that creeper is really up to."

Veemon gave a weary blink. "Now."

"Now."

"I miss the old you."

He ground his fist into Veemon's head. "Come on."

They arrived at Primary Village when the sun still sat low and the babies had just started to jump around, looking for their breakfast.

The Digidestined Memorial School for the Glitched and Impaired (_that name, though_) sat in the distance and so did the hut housing Animamon.

Davis sort of glared at it for a minute before he and Veemon began poking around the village, trying to scrounge up whatever information they could about the virus.

The whole thing seemed fishy and he had a weird feeling he hadn't gotten all the details. Mostly because Ken was a mother hen, shielding him like he was too weak to deal with the stuff that mattered, just 'cause his marriage went to crap.

No one really knew much of anything. Elecmon only had the patience for a few questions before he left Davis to stare at the plastic bubble they had erected to quarantine the infected digimon. There were only six in total, bundled in their little nests. They seemed drained, barely opening their eyes whenever they woke from a nap and bouncing around awkwardly to nibble on their food. It was weird to see baby digimon so lethargic.

"I don't get it, Vee," Davis said, squatting beside it. "I thought digimon just got mean when they got viruses. Not sick."

"I've been sick."

"Yeah, with like a cold, not like this." Davis gave a little wave to one of the babies. It gave just the slightest perk of its little round body before slumping over again. "The whole thing is weird."

"It is rather puzzling," said Animamon.

Davis let out a squeak that he'd be super embarrassed about if there'd been anyone else to witness it besides Veemon and a bunch of babies. He scrambled to his feet while Veemon looked at him sideways.

"He's been there awhile," Veemon said.

"Thanks for warnin me," said Davis, cheeks red and hand clutching his chest.

Animamon stood nearly twice his height. A dark robe hid most of his body, just as it had all those years ago, leaving only his arms and face exposed, with their pale skin and deep red markings. His glazed pupils caught Davis's face and he held his gaze there. For a split second, he wondered if Animamon could actually see him.

"What's your deal?" he spat.

"I thought you might be looking for me." Animamon's blind gaze held until Davis tore his away.

He tried to ignore the chills running down his spine. "Well I'm not."

When there was no response to his remark, Davis turned back to the sleeping babies inside quarantine.

"You're concerned."

Davis frowned. "No shit."

"But that isn't your real purpose in coming here today."

The hairs on his neck stuck up. "What do you know?" he grumbled. Then, after thinking about it for a second, he flung around, standing as tall as he could beside the ultimate. "Are you readin my mind?"

"That is not how my powers operate."

"I know how your powers operate," Davis said, teeth grinding. "Don't act like you don't remember."

"The past is hazy, but it is not erased."

"Just stay out of my head."

"Is that not the opposite of your intentions?"

Davis's mouth opened, a retort pressing on the tip of his tongue. It stilled, a weight settling over him until his fingers curled into his palms, nails biting his skin.

Veemon put a hand on his calf. "Davish? Are you okay?"

He shook his head and fixed his eyes on Animamon's aimless ones. "I'm gonna get to the bottom of this whole virus thing. There's something fishy going on."

Animamon's eyes seemed to focus on him again.

"Stop looking at me like that."

The digimon had the nerve to smile, showing off a row of sharp teeth. "I cannot see."

"What's your angle?" Davis stepped away from the quarantined nest in order to give himself some breathing room, coming around Animamon's side. "How come you're all buddy buddy with the guys who killed you?"

Animamon's smile fell.

"That part's not too hazy, huh?"

"Davish, maybe we should go," said Veemon.

"No. I want to know what's going on." Davis tugged at the goggles around his neck, letting the band stretch taught and contract. "What do you know about this virus? Why are you really helping them?"

"Because I'm the only one who can."

"Explain."

Animamon's gaze flashed absently for a moment and then he turned, his shoulders lumbering beneath his robe. "I'd prefer to do so out of the light."

"Are you tryin to lure me into your creepy cave and have your way with me?" Davis asked, but Animamon was already walking away, his clawed feet pressing into green grass and sunlight.

Davis's teeth ground so loudly he was sure he'd chipped one of them.

Veemon stared up at him with a sort of confused concern. "Are we going?"

"Ugh."

By the time they had made it inside Animamon's hut, every bobblehead was bouncing. Animamon stood before his bookshelves, his clawed finger dragging across the last plastic head. Together they all made a clicking sound, that quickly fell out of unison.

"Creepy," Davis muttered once his eyes had adjusted to the lack of light.

Animamon smiled and sat at his small wooden table, clawed fingers folding together. Veemon quickly accepted fruit from the basket he offered and Davis slowly sat beside them, all the muscles in his legs tense and ready to spring.

"The Child of Knowledge-" started Animamon.

"His name's Izzy," said Davis. "Aren't you pals now?"

"After the infected digimon were reborn he approached me. For now the virus seems to be contained, but it's attachment to their digicores is concerning. That is where my unique skill set comes into play."

"So you're gonna what? Peep in their souls and poke them with a needle?"

"For the vaccine, essentially, yes. For those already infected, we are in the process of discussing another approach."

"Which is?"

"A bit more intricate."

"You're just full of details, aren't you?" Davis stared at him, searching for some hint of something sinister. "Why are you helping them?"

Animamon smiled. "Why does anyone help anyone?" The question sat heavy between them before he continued. "Personally, I feel the need to atone for my many mistakes."

"Well isn't that noble of you."

"I have lived among these digimon for this entire life. They are my friends."

"Why Ken?"

Animamon did not answer, but Davis could tell he understood.

"You sent some digimon hybrid in that world that you knew would go after him. And it…" Davis felt his jaw clench and every muscle screamed in memory. "How can Ken even look at you?"

"I understand a long time ago he was your enemy."

"Don't," Davis spat. "That's not even- that has nothing to do with you."

"Then I suggest you ask him. But I don't think this is the real purpose of your visit."

"What are you talking about?"

"The Child of Passion."

"Uh, you just lost me. Am I supposed to know who that is?" Davis raised a brow and turned to Veemon, who gave a shrug, mouth full of banana.

"The girl who wanted me dead."

The moment those words slipped from Animon's lips, Davis felt heat rise in pinpricks over the back of his neck, spreading to his face until anger and sadness and fear slipped over his arms in waves of tingling heat.

"The one you married," Animamon clarified even though he no longer needed to. "You want to remember why."

For a minute, Davis sat in stunned silence. It had been sitting there since his last visit, the yearning to see more memories with the clarity only that monster was able to give him.

But he hadn't even admitted that to _himself_.

"H-how did you?" He turned to Veemon, who still looked completely clueless. "I…" His eyes flashed back to pale skin and clouded eyes. "What are you after here?"

"Your friendship." Animamon held out his hand, fingers outstretched above his head like a doting father. "Shall I?"

For a second, Davis considered smacking him away, denying everything, but then he thought of the messages on his D-terminal and the rings gathering dust on his nightstand.

The moment the digimon's nails scraped his scalp, he felt the shift, the world darkening inside the candlelit hut, the voice of Veemon fading behind memories, and the anxiety the past, reaching until he'd fallen back into it.

...

_.~*~~**~~*~._

I've been working on the same problem for nearly an hour now and the mound of homework I have spread over my bed is not getting any smaller. Meanwhile, Ken is closing his last textbook and stuffing it into his backpack. He offers his help and when I grumble under my breath, he asks what's really bothering me.

"Yolei wants to have sex."

"Oh."

Ken is looking at me like I've grown an extra head and I groan, falling back on my bed. "I mean I want to, too. But, what if I'm bad at it?"

"I don't think I'm the best person to talk to about this."

I sit up and my eyebrows sort of have a mind of their own, creasing together in the middle of my forehead. "Why not?"

"Lack of experience?"

"But you're smart."

Ken frowns. "You guys are ready for that?"

"She's a college girl now and I'm…" My mouth turns down to match his. He already knows how insecure I am being the younger one in the relationship, still stuck in high school while Yolei goes on adulting, so I bypass that issue and go straight for the next.

"I kinda thought it'd happen by now, but you know, stuff always gets in the way. Parents, digimon, roommates, _maybe if you remembered condoms,_ _we're not doing it in a car!_" I finish the last few lines in my best imitation of Yolei's voice, scolding me.

"Maybe you should talk to Tai," Ken says and I immediately feel relief flood over me.

"That's perfect! His first time was with Mimi. If he can tap that…"

"_Davis_."

...

"It was awful," Tai says, looking at me over a laptop and a pile of textbooks. I'm pretty sure I'm interrupting him writing his term paper, but he doesn't let on that he's bothered. "I mean, she wasn't, but I was. She didn't complain per se, but I could tell."

"Um, any pointers on what _not_ to do then?"

"Don't do it drunk."

"Perfect," I say. "So what about with that other chick? Second time a charm?"

"That's not," Tai starts and then he closes his laptop to smile at me. "You guys are gonna be fine. You love each other, right?"

I try not to go red, but it's happening anyway. I give an enthusiastic nod and realize I look way too eager. Thank God Tai's so cool.

"Just take it slow. Use protection."

"Thanks, Mom."

"Look, if you're wanting details, all my good advice is going to be from my most recent relationship."

Going pale, I jump to my feet and grab Veemon by the tail, yanking him off Tai's bed.

"But Agumon was getting cookies," he cries.

"Abort!" I yell, giving Tai a horrified look. "Abort!"

...

Matt stares at me. "Google it."

Why didn't I think of that?

...

"Google has traumatized me."

"I warned you not to click on the ads. Do you want me to install a proper antivirus software? Yours is outdated."

"That is not the problem, Izzy."

"Why don't you try the library?"

...

Cody starts to type my request into the library database and does a double take.

"Please don't involve me in this," he says.

"I'm running out of options. The guys on the team were the worst. They all started heckling me for being with the same chick for three years without getting some." ("You're counting the breaks?") "So what if we didn't do it yet? They just don't get Yolei. She's gonna want it to be perfect and she's got all these ideas on how things should go. I can't keep track of 'em. Like, get this, she told me about how gross this guy dating her sister was just 'cause he spent the entire time slobbering all over her t—"

"Why don't you talk to TK?"

"He's dating Kari."

"Point taken."

...

"I need medical advice." I open a book in front of Joe's nose the moment I enter his apartment. "How accurate is this?"

He lowers his glasses to look at the pages and suddenly turns pink. "I'm not sure if my opinion on Kama Sutra would be considered medical advice."

"Why doesn't anyone know how to have sex?"

"That's not, oh God."

"Oh, honey," Mimi pipes in, emerging from the bathroom. I didn't even know she was there. She slings an arm around my shoulders and grabs the book from my hands. "You're looking for advice from the wrong gender."

"Do you live here?" I ask her.

"Sometimes," she says.

I stare at her in awe. "I have so many questions for you."

Joe immediately bolts out the door.

...

There are literally so many feelings tumbling over and through me that I'm not sure what I say first: "wow" or "sorry."

I think it ended up coming out as a combination of the two, because Yolei is looking at me with a sort of a weird expression.

Her eyes are so much easier to see without an inch of glass in the way. The brown is nearly gold, something I never really paid attention to until we started kissing each other (she always takes the glasses off so I don't smudge them with my "face grease").

I don't think she's ever looked prettier than now, hair all a mess and her face soft, with those eyes and her flushed cheeks. Some of the makeup around her lashes smeared and I rub it with my thumb which makes her bat my hand away.

"Don't be sorry," she says, combing her hair back before she turns on her pillow. We barely fit there together and my eyes take in the clock behind her head, making sure we finished well before her roommate is done with class. "That was totally normal."

My eyes shoot back to her. "That's it?" I ask, trying not to feel offended.

"You just said sorry."

"Okay, true." I groan. "Ugh, I'm sorry."

"Seriously, stop." She's smiling and she slips her hand over my chest, nuzzling her face in my neck. "It'll be better next time."

I smile so wide my cheeks hurt. "You're not gonna dump me?"

"For finishing without me? I don't think I was going to get there anyway." She flicks my nose when I pout and I snatch her hand. "It was our first time. Jeez, Davis."

I put her palm on my mouth and her fingers cover my eyes. "It didn't hurt too much, did it?"

"Only a little, same as the dozen other times you asked."

"Sorry," I say again and she wiggles her hand out of mine and tickles my ribs.

I nearly knock her in the gut with my knee, so she ends it with a firm squeeze and I feel every part of her again, pressing on every part of me.

I squirm, super uncomfortable. "Okay, I gotta do something about this. I'm gross. How do you cuddle after that?"

She laughs when I stand up and she has the nerve to watch me deal with things. "The movies are full of lies."

When I come back to her tiny twin bed a little less disgusting she welcomes me into her arms. My thighs trap her left calf and her stomach rises and falls under my chest. I feel sleepy and rest my cheek on her, closing my eyes. Her fingers rake under my hair and down my neck.

"I heard you borrowed Kama Sutra from the library to prepare," she says.

I slip my arms between the mattress and her back, pulling her in tight. "That was intimidating."

"Mimi said you scared Joe right out of his own apartment."

"He was totally unhelpful," I mumble into her skin. "Mimi was amazing though."

Yolei pinches me right on my bare ass and I let out a really undignified squeak.

"You should've just talked to me," she says and I lift my face out of her boobs to see her squinting at me.

Damn her terrible eyesight.

"I've had a lot of unsolicited advice from my sisters," she says and then as an afterthought, she adds, "and Mantarou."

Her tongue hangs out like she's gagging and I'm tempted to grab it with my fingers, but I know that pisses her off and I'm gonna be smart when all my most vulnerable parts are still exposed.

"Aren't you the expert?" I grumble.

"The point is, I had an idea of what to expect. You should've told me you were nervous."

I scoff even though it's true so she looks at me with her serious face and says, "This was supposed to be between us."

Oh no, she set me up.

"You know what else is between us?"

I can't even keep a straight face. I let out a ridiculous sounding snort and her groan vibrates in her chest.

I kiss her jaw before she starts to get mad and her hands relax on my back. "I'm sorry," I tell her again, moving to the spot behind her ear.

"You should be," she says and her voice is all air.

I used to have this list: a bunch of boxes I needed to check off in order to think of myself as a man. If you had told the past me I'd be checking any of them off with Yolei Inoue, I would've died laughing. But now that we're here, I can't imagine being with anyone else.

If you don't count the argument about who should put the condom on that delayed the whole thing awhile, she made it easy. All the awkward moments we spent fumbling were filled with mutual giggles and a few snide jokes neither of us took too seriously.

I don't even care about those stupid boxes anymore.

"I love you," I tell her, kissing her ear, her cheeks, her lips.

She rolls me underneath, all laughter and smiles, and says it back.

...

_.~*~~**~~*~._

"Fuck."

The curse gurgled out of his mouth. Davis pulled back from Animamon's outstretched hand and grasped his chest, barely able to breathe.

"I apologize if it was unpleasant," said Animamon.

"Davish?"

He waved Veemon off. "I'm done. I'm done with this. I don't know why I... I can't." He staggered out of the hut and into the bright digital sun.

A horde of digimon instantly bombarded them, chirping about soccer games and tag and Davis snapped at them. "Not now."

Veemon lingered behind, explaining, "He's not feeling well."

Davis picked up the pace, storming out the village, not even noticing if Veemon had followed or not. Everything went by in a blur, leaves and foliage blending into one green blob, and he wasn't sure if it was because of his speed or his eyes.

Then the stupid lake and its stupid swan boat came into view. He collapsed against the bark of a tree, t-shirt catching as he slid down, lifting until it scraped the skin of his back and he didn't care.

Veemon found him crying a few minutes later.

"I still love her," Davis choked out the moment his partner sat beside him. He shoved the heels of his palms into his eyes. "And she hates me."

"She doesn't. If you'd just talk—"

"Don't tell me that right now."

So Veemon didn't.

...

* * *

...

"Armadillomon told me that you stranded Veemon in Digiworld."

Davis turned his head with great effort and lifted a heavy finger to his lips, arm flopping about disobediently. "Shhhhh."

"No one here is sober enough to understand what I'm saying," said Cody. He looked around the dark bar at its very few patrons. "Which is surprising since it's only two o'clock in the afternoon."

Despite being the youngest of them, Cody had probably changed the least over the years. Davis swore he'd been born with 'wise old man' face. All that had changed there was the sharpness of his jaw. The wispy hair of his teenage years had been hacked off into a short crew cut making him look like a true professional. He was wearing a polo and jeans instead of a suit, so it must have been his day off.

"Five clock some…" Davis trailed off.

Cody pushed the nearly finished drink out of his reach and waved over the bartender, handing him a card. "I'm going to close his tab."

"Round 'n me."

"No."

Davis pouted and leaned forward, resting his arms and head on the bar top.

Cody's phone vibrated the moment the bartender came back with a receipt. He put it to his ear.

"I found him. No, don't leave work. Okay, I'll tell him." He looked up to Davis. "Ken says he'll be over tonight. And to stop drinking."

"Blacklist," Davis hissed into his arm.

"Yes, I think it's fair to say he's still mad," Cody said into the phone. He looked at Davis and covered the mouthpiece. "Ken's not happy you went to Animamon's without him."

"My own man."

"No, he's not in any condition to be alone right now. I'll take him to my place, get him some food and water."

"No Kens 'llowed."

"He can hear you."

"Pfft."

"Yeah, I'll keep you updated." With that Cody was off the phone and, despite a little bit of a fight, he managed to unhook Davis's arms from the bar and sling one around his shoulder.

"You're taller than me," Davis wept.

"We went through this ten years ago, Davis."

"Still hurts." They slumped out of the bar and into Cody's waiting car. Davis flopped horizontally into the backseat and let out a long dramatic moan. "Like my heart."

Cody nearly shut the door on his feet. "God help me."


End file.
